St Thomas Easter Fair in the 1870s:
Inventions and new attractions
By Dr. Jill A. Sullivan, Associate Research Fellow, University of Exeter
Despite the hopeful hints in some newspaper reports of the 1860s, the mid-nineteenth century did not mark the passing of the 300 year old fair. Instead, thousands of people attended the fair of 1870: '[t]hroughout the afternoon and evening, Fore-street, Bridge-street, and Alphington-street were thronged by troops of parties bound on the sight-seeing expedition'. Among the sights awaiting them were whirligigs, or roundabouts which, for the first time, were 'driven by steam'.[1]
Of these there were three specimens, two of them being provided with "hobbies," three-abreast, and with gaily painted affairs for all the world like hotel omnibuses in miniature and minus the wheels. The Babel of noises arising from the fair field - to the annoyance of all residents within a radius of half-a-mile - was not, it may be imagined, at all mollified by the screams of the whistles attached to these machines, the proprietors of which seemed to act on the principle of frightening the public into patronising their entertainments. Steam was also pressed into service for the working of an "industrial exhibition," where might be seen a model of a silk ribbon factory and a "temple of Minerva" in full play. Here also were a case of automaton humming birds and the "piping bullfinch" from the Paris Exhibition, the latter of which was certainly worth seeing.
In addition, the fair included the usual sweetmeat stalls, nut stands, conjurers and boxing booths, plus a 'Zoological Menagerie', including a 'lion mained monkey'. This show was evidently a much smaller and less impressive concern than the menageries provided by Edmond or Wombwell. According to this review, the other animals on display inside the tent
if we may judge from one or two specimens occasionally exhibited on the outside as decoys - were sorry representatives of the "noble denizens of the forest," to whom they were believed by a charitable public to bear some resemblance.
Next to the menagerie was the theatre, that year it was 'Weight's Theatre', which had been recorded at the fair in 1868 and whose repertoire 'may be best described as a mixture of melodrama, tragedy, comedy, and pantomime, well shaken.' Booths containing curiosities were also trumpeted, including 'a "Swiss bearded lady and her son," an "Egyptian mummy" - on a pedestal! - and a porker with a double supply of legs and bodies.'[2]
In 1871, the Post detailed the forthcoming attractions of that year's Easter Fair, which were to include the 'London Gala Company', promising 'old English peaceful sports'. The sports were open to competition and included horse racing, steeple chasing, jumping in sacks, and dancing and, in addition, the manager of the London Gala Company also 'secured the services of the Great Allied Circus Company' with 60 artistes and 80 horses and ponies, to perform at the fair, each day at 2.30 pm until '(with a short interval)' 10 at night.[3] The Western Times review noted that the fair-going public were appealed to by very different aspects of the occasion on their way to the main field. Stalls, especially those selling sweetmeats were evident 'as soon as you get outside the city boundary', as were 'blind, lame and deaf and dumb beggers [sic], and all the usual attendants at fairs [...] and similar places'.[4] Once at the main site, the 'thousands of visitors' had an exceptional choice of entertainments that year 'for never, perhaps, has the Fair Field contained so varied a collection of "this world's wonders." ' Shows included everything 'from the drama to performing monkeys and goats', the races managed by the Gala Company, freak shows, including ' "a grey horse with six legs - the extra ones being in front - projecting from below the knee;" and "a colt with three legs." ' Plus rifle galleries, nut-stalls, boxing booths, athletics, and the 'sundry stalls, and booths, the cries, the shouts, the booms, the ringing, singing, noise, and commotion of Easter Fair'.[5] The shows were advertised by a cacophony of 'hand organs, cymbals, drums, cracked trumpets, and gongs, unite[d] in "harmony" until each place is full.' At the theatre
A very energetic painted faced conductor invites the spectators to "walk hup, cause the place are nearly full, and you now sees all the whole performance for - price threepence gallery." To offer an additional inducement the "stars" consent to show themselves for a few minutes, and the beauties of the boards indulge in a public dance, on which some daring youths get too near the steps, and blocking the way, receive a few enlivening cuts with the whip for their trouble.[6]
Throughout the 1870s, the newspaper reports acknowledged the range of people enjoying the fair but there was little comment on behaviour or a perceived potential for crime during the three day festival. Reviews instead reflected contemporaneous developments in the reduction of working hours and the consequent increase in leisure time that was emerging in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, noting that the fair attracted
not only the denizens of the city, but several excursion trains brought in large detachments of pleasure seekers, who made the streets lively and animated with their presence and occasionally jocund with song.[7]
Newspaper reports invariably focused on the shows themselves, revelling in the sights and sounds provided by the showmen, and the theatre where the 'symmetrical forms of the comedians were enveloped in glittering costumes, enough to throw a gas company into despair'. In other booths were spotted the curiosities:
living skeletons; the largest man in the world; the great English giant horse, which "challenges the world to produce his equal;" a sheep with six legs; the great Spanish bull with two bodies and six legs; and a wild Indian, who looked as tame as paving stones. The Indian performed one of his astonishing achievements on the outside. He held in his hands something that looked like fine tow, and presently he began to swallow portions, varying the operation by ejecting smoke and then fire from his mouth. The beholders were wonderstruck; and one of them exclaimed "There's no 'sception about he - no Englishman could do that, I know." But if the amazed one had turned his head to the left he might have seen an Englishman performing precisely the same thing.[8]
The fair of 1875 once again comprised a large number of 'athletic performances, exhibitions of fat and thin, tall and short persons, and extraordinary cattle, peep shows, shooting galleries, sweet and nut stands'. The Western Times review expanded on a few examples of the unusual animals on show, which included 'the polite pig which has a "man's 'and and harm," and courteously presents the same to be shaken by the assembled company.' Visitors could also see a 'Salamine individual who has a talent for "swallowing pokers, eating fire, and drinking fire," a "German Gymnasium," where 'prodigies of agility are performed,' and a circus 'at the back of the fair field', plus Professor Lightwood's 'sparring tent'.[9] In 1878, the attractions even included a 'Talking Fish' whose appearance was heralded by advertisements in the local press.[10]
Reporters appear to have prided themselves on their ability to present the fair and its characters as comic creations, picking up on the accents and dialects of performers, and their easy beguilement of the crowds. This style of reporting echoes throughout the period, sometimes revealing a certain detachment, but more often appearing as an attempt to copy the comic creations of such popular authors as Charles Dickens. However, the characters and types witnessed at the fair had their own, very specific hierarchy and titles as an incident in 1875 highlighted. The Western Times review of that year's fair described the Cheap Jacks selling their wares, amongst which 'elegant gold-plated watch guards worth 8s. 6d, and even half a guinea, sold for 1s. 6d.'[11] But the term 'Cheap Jack' could be offensive if misapplied. A few days later, magistrates at the ExeterCastle heard a case of assault between two of the fair men - the proprietor of one of the sparring booths and a 'licensed hawker and proprietor of a travelling cutlery establishment'. The former had insulted the hawker, calling him a 'Cheap Jack' and assaulting him. The defendant was fined costs of 11s. 6d. and bound over to keep the peace for six months.[12]
Footnotes
[1] Western Times, 19 April 1870, p. 5.
[2] Devon Weekly Times, 22 April 1870, p. 7.
[3] Post, 5 April 1871, p. 5.
[4] Western Times, 11 April 1871, p. 5.
[5] Post, 12 April 1871, p. 5.
[6] Western Times, 11 April 1871, p. 5.
[7] Western Times, 7 April 1874, p. 5.
[8] Post, 3 April 1872, p. 4.
[9] Western Times, 30 March 1875, p. 5.
[10] Western Times, 18 April 1878, p. 4.
[11] Western Times, 30 March 1875, p. 5.
[12] Western Times, 6 April 1875, p. 3.