tion is so clear, so ample, and so amusing, that I trust my readers will not be alarmed either at its length, or at its being in verse, for it contains a far better account than I could condense from various sources

"From various parts, from various ends repair
A vast mix'd multitude to Southwark Fair,
Stage players now of Smithfield take their leave,
And hither come, more shillings to receive;
For this their painted-cloths, full-wide display'd,
Tell every branch of the dramatick trade.
Whether in tragedy you take delight;
Or comedy your fancy more invite ;

Or Punch's opera best entertain;

Or the stage mutiny's rebellious train;

Or Monsieur Bag-pipes little dancing twain.

All, down to lowest farce and raree show,

Are here exhibited, to high and low;

Harper and Lee their Trojan horse display.

Troy's burnt, and Paris kill'd, nine times a day;

Here Maximilian does himself uprear;

To whom like pigimies all the rest appear.

The fall of Bajazet, alas! too true!
Cibber and Bullock here present to view.

Ambitious Pug, advanced, thus chatt'ring cries ;—
While great men fall, see how we monkeys rise;
The Court of France, all fresh and in its prime
May here be seen too, without loss of time;
On the parades the players march along,
Each proper habited, a shining throng!
Our merry Andrews, joking swell the train,
To tempt the gazers to fall in amain;
While the fair drummer, beating loud alarms,
Invites you to her-show, as well as-arms.
So from the steeple Violante flies,
Loud shouts and acclamations rend the skies,
This dame the slack rope volts with equal ease,
Both which, by different ways, surprise and please;

The prize-fighter, so daring to behold, And the fire-eating man, need not be told. Some come with more intent to see those shows, Gaming and drinking many more propose. Others, how few, blest with love's purest flames Come to divert their children and their dames. Sharpers of every rank, with box and dice To gull young heirs and 'prentices to vice. Ev'n catchpoles too, like tyger's seeking prey, Hither repair, poor debtors to dismay; Nor kings, nor emperors, these furies spare, But as they plague the world, disturb the Fair." From the same source, 66 Hogarth Moralized," I will give a few notes illustrating the above description, the more needed as I cannot reproduce here, Hogarth's picture. "The Court of France" was a set of models, à la Madame Tussaud (but said not to be of wax), of the Court of Louis Quinze, "dressed in habits given by these great personages out of their respective wardrobes, to the artist."

Signora Violante was a rope dancer who distinguished herself in the reign of George I. But the man seen gliding down the rope from the battlements of St. George's Church, Southwark, is one Cadman a noted steeple-flyer; he ultimately broke his neck at Shrewsbury in 1740. In the "Daily Post" of Monday, September 10th, 1733, there is a bill which accurately describes the performance of "Lee and Harper's" great Theatrical Booth, on the Bowling-green, behind the Marshalsea in Southwark during the time of the Fair, when was to be represented a celebrated droll (or farce) called "Jephthah's Rash Vow; or The Virgin's Sacrifice." A note tells us that the Book of the droll is printed and sold by G. Lee, in Blue Maid-alley, Southwark.

The siege of Troy which is alluded to in the "Trojan

Horse display, when Troy's burnt and Paris killed, nine times a day," was first brought to perfection by a Mrs. Mynnes and her daughter Mrs. Lee, and when the fair was suppressed, a petition was presented to the House of Commons by them, stating that they had lived thirty years in the parish during which they had yearly, by their servants, performed drolls at the Fair in two booths, which with their contents were worth £2,000, and asserted as a proof of their public utility, that they first introduced on the stage these eminent actors Powell and Booth. The petitioners prayed a compensation, but it was rejected.

In an eulogium upon Boheme the actor, Mr. Victor says, that "His first appearance was at a booth in Southwark Fair, which, in those days lasted two weeks, and was frequented by persons of all ranks. He acted the part of Menelaus in the best droll I ever saw, called the Siege of Troy."

The whole description of the Fair is of course of the times of George I. and II., but, doubtless, with a little alteration it would serve as well for the middle ages. At least we know that the Charter of the Fair lasted exactly 300 years, and the Fair itself was almost certainly in existence many years before, for in mediæval times "when martial hardihood was the only accomplishment likely to confer distinction, when war was thought to be the most honourable pursuit, and agriculture deemed the only necessary employment," there was little social intercourse, and retail dealers were so few, that men had no easy means of procuring those articles which they occasionally wanted. To remove this inconvenience it was found necessary to establish some general mart where they might be supplied, fairs were therefore instituted, as a convenient medium between buyer and seller, and were at first considered as

They were generally held on the
Some of them continued open

merely places of trade. eve of the Saint's day.

many weeks (as the fairs abroad do now), and were granted peculiar privileges to encourage the attendance of those who had goods upon sale.

On 16th June, 1670, ten years after his visit to the Fair, Mr. Evelyn "went with some friends to the bear garden, where was cock-fighting, dog-fighting, beare and bullbaiting, it being a famous day for all these butcherly sports, or barbarous cruelties. The bulls did exceedingly well, but the Irish wolfe-dog exceeded, which was a tall greyhound, a stately creature indeede, who beate a cruell mastiff. One of the bulls toss'd a dog full into a lady's lap, as she sate in one of the boxes at a considerable height from the arena. Two poore dogs were kill'd, and so all ended with the ape on horseback, and I, most heartily weary of the rude and dirty pastime, which I had not seene, I think, in twenty years before."

Evelyn also gives the following curious reason for the suppression of puppet shows at the fair. "The dreadful earthquake in Jamaica, this summer, (1692) was profanely and ludicrously represented in a puppet play, or some such lewd pastime, in the fair at Southwark, which caused the Queene to put downe that idle and vicious mock shew."

In 1676 there occurred a great fire in Southwark, but I have not met with any detailed account of it.

It is a matter of difficulty at times to find the right opportunity for inserting any disconnected items of information, and this seems as good a place as any for alluding to the Southwark Tradesmen's tokens, of which many still remain.

From the time of Queen Elizabeth to Charles II., the tradesmen, victuallers in particular, and indeed all that

pleased, coined small money or tokens for the benefit or convenience of trade.

On the Old St. Olave's Grammar School which was situated in Church Passage, Tooley, being sold in 1830, and taken down to make the approaches to New London Bridge, many antiquities were found amidst the ruins, and among them several Southwark tradesmen's tokens.

Plates of some of these appear in the "Mirror" for April, 1839, in the possession of the editor of which the originals were: On the obverse of one is the image of a drum in the centre, with Will. Greenington around it, and on the reverse at Bridge Foote Street, with C.W.I. in the centre, and two stars. Another has three tobacco pipes in the centre, with At Tobacco Pipes as the legend on the one side, and in St. Olave's Street with M.C. in the centre on the reverse. Edith Eddinson exhibits a hand and a pair of scissors as her sign, while on the reverse is. "In St. Toole's Street, 1665," surrounding "Her Halfpenny" in the There are others which I need not enumerate.

centre.

CHAPTER XV.

THE ACQUITTAL OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS.

QUEEN ANN'S Reign.-Dr. SACHEVERELL.

And

UEM Dens vult perdere prius dementat." certainly that judicial blindness or judicial madness seems to have fallen upon James II., when he so insanely