The Old Showmen and the Old London FairsFrost, Thomas
History
The Old Showmen and the Old London Fairs
Frost, Thomas
Fairs -- England -- London; London (England) -- Social life and customs
Lee and Harper presented _Jephtha's Rash Vow_, in which Hulett appeared;
and Miller, Mills, and Oates, the tragedy of _Jane Shore_, in which Miss
Oates personated the heroine; her father, Tim Hampwell; and Chapman,
Captain Blunderbuss. After the tragedy came a new mythological
entertainment, called the _Garden of Venus_; and the advertisements state
that, "To entertain the Company before the Opera begins, there will be a
variety of Rope-Dancing and Tumbling by the best Performers; particularly
the famous Italian Woman, Mademoiselle De Reverant and her Daughter, who
gave such universal satisfaction at the Publick Act at Oxford; the
celebrated Signor Morosini, who never performed in the Fair before; Mons.
Jano and others, and Tumbling by young River and Miss Derrum, a child of
nine years old." De Reverant is not an Italian name, and it is to be
hoped, for the sake of the lady's good name and the management's sense of
decorum, that the prefix of Mademoiselle was an error of the printer. Jano
was a performer at Sadler's Wells, and other places of amusement in the
vicinity of the metropolis, where tea-gardens and music-rooms were now
becoming numerous.
Tottenham Court fair, the origin of which I have been unable to trace,
emerged from its obscurity this year, when Lee and Harper, in conjunction
with a third partner named Petit, set up a show there, behind the King's
Head, near the Hampstead Road. The entertainments were _Bateman_ and the
_Ridotto al fresco_. The fair began on the 4th of August.
Petit's name is not in the advertisements for Southwark Fair, where Lee
and Harper gave the same performance as at Tottenham Court. A new
aspirant to popular favour appeared this year on Southwark Green, namely,
Yeates's theatrical booth, in which a ballad opera called _The Harlot's
Progress_ was performed, with "Yeates, junior's, incomparable dexterity of
hand: also a new and glorious prospect, or a lively view of the
installation of His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange.
"Note.--At a large room near his booth are to be seen, without any loss of
time, two large ostriches, lately arrived from the Deserts of Arabia,
being male and female."
Fawkes, the conjuror, was now dead, but Pinchbeck carried on the show, in
conjunction with his late partner's son, and issued the following
announcement:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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