* "August 23, 1749, a gallery in Phillips's booth broke down. F our persons were killed and several wounded."
** Clarke, who lived in the reigns of King James II. and King William, was a terrible torment to his tailors; for when one came to measure him, he contrived to have an enormous hump on his left shoulder, and when the coat was tried on, it had shifted to his right I The tailor apologized for his blunder, took home the garment, altered it, returned, and again attempted to make it fit, when, to his astonishment and dismay, he found his queer customer as straight as an arrow! A legion of tailors came to Adonize him, but he puzzled them all.
Hans Buling * displays his monkey's humours, and his own. The Auctioneer of Moorfields ** transfers his book-stall to the cloisters. "Poor Will Ellis" offers for sale his simple "effigie."
* A well-known charlatan, who advertised his nostrums, attended by a monkey.
** This grave-looking, spectacled personage, in a rare print by Sutton Nieholls, stands at his book-stall in Moorfields, puffing the contents of his sale catalogue, among which are "The History of Theves;" "English Rogue;" "Aristotle's Masterpiece and "Poems by Rochester
"Come, sirs, and view this famous library, 'Tis pity learning shou'd discouraged be. Here's bookes (that is, if they were but well sold) I will maintain't are worth their weight in gold. Then bid apace, and break me out of hand; Ne'er cry you don't the subject understand: For this, I'll say, howe'er the case may hit, Whoever buys of me,--I teach'em wit."
*** Sitting on the railings in Moorfields. Beneath are some lines, giving an account how "Bedlam became his sad portion and lot for the love of Dear Betty." Coming to his senses, he turned poet:--
"Now innocent poetry 's all my delight; And I hope that you'll all be so kind as to buy't: That poor Will Ellis, when laid in his tomb, May be stuck in your closet, or hung in your room."
The "Dwarf Man and the Black" give us a chance of meeting our love at----first sight.
** "Sept. 8, 1757. Daily Advertiser. If the lady who stood near a young gentleman to see the Dwarf Man and the Black in Bartholomew Fair, on Wednesday evening, is single and will inform the gentleman (who means the strictest honour) where he may once more have the happiness of meeting her, she will be waited on by a person of fortune. The lady wore a black satin hat, puffed inside and out, a black cardinal, and a genteel sprigged gown."