There is a story told of Shuter, however, which is strongly suggestive of his ability to have supplied Cat Harris's place. He was travelling in the Brighton stage-coach on a very warm day, with four ladies, when the vehicle stopped to receive a sixth passenger, who could have played Falstaff without padding. The faces of the ladies elongated at this unwelcome addition to the number, but Shuter only smiled. When the stout gentleman was seated, and the coach was again in motion, Shuter gravely inquired of one of the ladies her motive for visiting Brighton. She replied, that her physician had advised sea-bathing as a remedy for mental depression. He turned to the others, and repeated his inquiries; the next was nervous, the third bilious--all had some ailment which the sea was expected to cure. "Ah!" sighed the comedian, "all your complaints put together are nothing to mine. Oh, nothing!--mine is dreadful but to think of." "Indeed, sir!" said the stout passenger, with a look of astonishment. "What is your complaint? you look exceedingly well." "Ah, sir!" responded Shuter, shaking his head, "looks are deceitful; you must know, sir, that, three days ago, I had the misfortune to be bitten by a mad dog, for which I am informed sea-bathing is the only cure. For that purpose I am going to Brighton; for though, as you observe, I am looking well, yet the fit comes on in a moment, when I bark like a dog, and endeavour to bite every one near me." "Lord have mercy on us!" ejaculated the stout passenger, with a look of alarm. "But, sir, you are not in earnest--you--" "Bow-wow-wow!" "Coachman! coachman! Let me out!--let me out, I say!" "Now, your honour, what's the matter?" "A mad dog is the matter!--hydrophobia is the matter! open the door!" "Bow-wow-wow!" "Open the door! Never mind the steps. Thank God, I am safe out! Let those who like ride inside; I'll mount the roof." So he rode to Brighton outside the coach, much to the satisfaction of Shuter and his fair companions who were very merry at his expense, the former repeating at intervals his sonorous _bow-wow-wow_! Theatrical booths and puppet-shows were again prohibited in 1762, and, as the jugglers, the acrobats, and the rope-dancers who attended the fairs did not advertise their performances, only casual notices are to be found in the newspapers of the period of the amusements which that generation flocked into Smithfield in the first week of September to witness, and which lead them somewhat earlier to the greens of Camberwell and Stepney. Some of the entertainers of the period are mentioned in an anonymous poem on Bartholomew Fair, which appeared in 1763. The names are probably fictitious.