THE OLD SHOWMEN, AND THE OLD LONDON FAIRS.
THE OLD SHOWMEN,
AND THE
OLD LONDON FAIRS.
BY
THOMAS FROST,
AUTHOR OF
“CIRCUS LIFE AND CIRCUS CELEBRITIES,” ETC.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON:
TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND,
1875.
[All Rights Reserved.]
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO.,
LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELD
PREFACE.
Popular amusements constitute so important a part of a nation’s socialhistory that no excuse need be offered for the production of the presentvolume. The story of the old London fairs has not been told before, andthat of the almost extinct race of the old showmen is so inextricablyinterwoven with it that the most convenient way of telling either was totell both. An endeavour has been made, therefore, to relate the rise,progress, and declension of the fairs formerly held in and about themetropolis as comprehensively and as thoroughly as the imperfect recordsof such institutions render possible; and to weave into the narrative allthat is known of[Pg vi] the personal history of the entertainers of the peoplewho, from the earliest times to the period when the London fairs becamethings of the past, have set up shows in West Smithfield, on the greens ofSouthwark, Stepney, and Camberwell, and in the streets of Greenwich andDeptford. Those who remember the fairs that were the last abolished, evenin the days of their decline, will, it is thought, peruse with interestsuch fragments of the personal history of Gyngell, Scowton, Saunders,Richardson, Wombwell, and other showmen of the last half century of theLondon fairs, to say nothing of the earlier generations of entertainers,as are brought together in the following pages.
The materials for a work of this kind are not abundant. The notices of thefairs to be found in records of the earlier centuries of their history areslight, and more interesting to the antiquary than to the general reader.Newspapers of the latter half of the seventeenth century, and the firsthalf of the eighteenth, afford only advertisements of the amusements, andof the showmen of the former period we learn only the names. During thelatter[Pg vii] half of the last century, the showmen seldom advertised in thenewspapers, and few of their bills have been preserved. No showman hasever written his memoirs, or kept a journal; and the biographers of actorswho have trodden the portable stages of Scowton and Richardson in theearly years of their professional career have failed to glean manyincidents of their fair experiences. All that can be presented of thepersonal history of such men as Gyngell, Scowton, Richardson, andWombwell, has been gathered from the few surviving members of thefraternity of showmen, and from persons who, at different periods, and invarious ways, have been brought into association with them. If, therefore,no other merit should be found in the following pages, they will at leasthave been the means of preserving from oblivion all that is known of analmost extinct class of entertainers of the people.