The showmen's bills and advertisements of the period enable us to identify most of the wonders enumerated by this writer. The female Samson and the wire-walker had been seen that year in the fairs, the famous negro and the Norfolk dwarf the year before, and the Corsican fairy and the double cow in 1748. The fire-eater was probably Powell, though I have seen no advertisement of that human salamander earlier than 1760. The Bartholomew Fair riot was repeated in 1753, when Buck, the successor of the unfortunate Birch, was very roughly handled by the rioters, and severely bruised. This tumult was followed by an accident to a wire-walker, named Evans, who, by the breaking of his wire, was precipitated to the ground, breaking one of his thighs and receiving other injuries. This was the year of the demonstration against the claim of the Corporation to levy tolls upon the goods of citizens, as well as upon those of strangers, during the time of Bartholomew Fair. Richard Holland, a leather-seller in Newgate Street, had, in the preceding year, refused the toll demanded on a roll of leather with which he had attempted to enter the fair, and, on the leather being seized by the collector, had called a constable, and charged the impounder with theft. The squabble resulted in an action against the Corporation, which was not tried, however, till 1754, when the judge pronounced in favour of the citizens. While the action was pending, Holland's cart was driven through the fair with a load of hay, and was not stopped by the collector of the tolls, who had, probably, been instructed to hold his hand until the matter was determined. The horses' heads were decorated with ribbons, and on the leader's forehead was a card, upon which the following doggrel lines were written in a bold round hand:-- "My master keeps me well, 'tis true, And justly pays whatever is due; Now plainly, not to mince the matter, No toll he pays but with a halter." On each side of the load of hay hung a halter, and a paper bearing the following announcement:-- "The time is approaching, if not already come, That all British subjects may freely pass on; And not on pretence of Bartholomew Fair Make you pay for your passage, with all you bring near. When once it is try'd, ever after depend on, 'Twill incur the same fate as on Finchley Common. Give Cæsar his due, when by law 'tis demanded, And those that deserve with this halter be hanged."