2°* S. VIII. Aug. 27. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



163 



the present) with some notice of a celebrity, the 

 omission of whose name in Mr. Morlet's Memoirs 

 is a blemish not easily effaced, — I mean the great 

 Egyptian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni. 

 First a barber, next a Capuchin monk, then a 

 student in hydraulic science, this extraordinary 

 man was afterwards compelled to earn his liveli- 

 hood as a posture-master and " strong-man " ! 

 Arriving in London in the year 1803, he walked 

 into Smithfield during Bartholomew Fair time, 

 where he was noticed by the master of a show, 

 who, it is said, thus questioned his Merry Andrew : 

 — " Do you see that tall looking fellow in the 

 midst of the crowd ? he is looking about him over 

 the heads of the people as if he walked upon stilts ; 

 go and see if he is worth our money, and ask him 

 if he wants a job." Away scrambled Mr. Merry- 

 man down the monkey's post, and, " as quick as 

 lightning," conducted the stranger to his master, 

 who being satisfied of his personal attractions, 

 immediately engaged, plumed, painted, and put 

 him up. 



The late J. T. Smith, in his Book for a Rainy 

 Day — a charming bit of gossip — gives us an in- 

 teresting account of his visit, in company with a 

 friend, to Bartholomew Fair in 1803. After men- 

 tioning several subjects of interest, he goes on to 

 say : — 



".The next object which attracted our notice was a 

 magnificent man, standing, as we were told, six feet six 

 inches and a half, independent of the heels of his shoes. 

 The gorgeous splendour of his Oriental dress was ren- 

 dered more conspicuous by an immense plume of white 

 feathers, which were like the noddings of an under- 

 taker's horse, increased in their wavy and graceful mo- 

 tion by the movements of the weai'er's head. 



"As this extraordinary man was to perform some 

 wonderful feats of strength, we joined the motley throng 

 of spectators, at the charge of ' only threepence each,' 

 that being vociferated by Flockton's successor as the 

 price of the evening admittance. 



" After he had gone through his various exhibitions 

 of holding great weights at arm's length, &c., the all-be- 

 spangled master of the show stepped forward, and stated 

 to the audience that if any four or five of the present 

 company would give, byway of encouraging the ' Young 

 Hercules,' alias ' the Patagonian Sampson,' sixpence a- 

 piece, he would carry them altogether round the booth, 

 in the form of a pyramid. 



" With this proposition my companion and myself 

 closed; and after two other persons had advanced, the 

 fine fellow threw ofi" his velvet cap surmounted by its 

 princely crest, stripped himself of his other gew-gaws, 

 and walked most majestically, in a flesh-coloured elastic 

 dress, to the centre of the amphitheatre, when four chairs 

 were placed round him, by which my friend and I as- 

 cended, and after throwing our legs across his lusty 

 shoulders, were further requested to embrace each other, 

 which we no sooner did, cheek by jole, than a tall skele- 

 ton of a man, instead of standing upon a small wooden 

 ledge fastened to Sampson's girdle, in an instant leaped 

 on his back, with the agility of a boy who pitches him- 

 self upon a post too high to clear, and threw a leg over 

 each of our shoulders ; as for the other chap (for we could 

 only muster four), the Patagonian took him up in his 

 arms. Then, after itir. iJ/enymaw had removed the chairs, 



as he had not his full complement, Sampson performed 

 his task with an ease of step most stately, without either 

 the beat of a drum, or the waving of a flag. 



« I have often thought that if George Cruikshank, or 

 my older friend Kowlandson, had been present at this 

 scene of a pyramid burlesqued, their playful pencils 

 would have been in running motion, and I should have 

 been considerably out-distanced had I then off'ered the 

 following additional description of our clustered appear- 

 ance. Picture to yourself, reader, two cheesemonger, 

 ruddy looking men, like my friend and myself, as the 

 sidesmen of Hercules, and the tall, vegetable-eating, 

 scare-crow kind of fellow, who made but one leap to 

 grasp us like the bird-killing spider, and then our fourth 

 loving associate, the heavy dumpling in front, whoea 

 chops, I will answer for it, relished many an inch-thick 

 steak from the once far-famed Honey-lane Market, all 

 supported with the greatest ease by this envied and 

 caressed Fride of the Fair, to whose powers the fre- 

 quenters of Sadler's Wells also bore many a testimony." 



In a note the author adds : — 



" In the year 1804, Antonio Benedictus Van Assen 

 engraved a whole-length portrait of this Patagonian 

 Sampson, at the foot of which his name was thus an- 

 nounced, ' Giovanni Baptista Belzoni.'' This animated 

 production was executed at the expense of the friendly 

 Mr. James Parry, the justly celebrated gem and seal 

 engraver, of Wells Street, Oxford Street. 



" After the close of Bartholomew Fair, this Patagonian 

 was seen at that of Edmonton, exhibiting in a field be- 

 hind the Bell Inn, immortalised by Cowper in his 

 • Johnny Gilpin ; ' and I have been assured that so late 

 as 1810, at Edinburgh, he was during his exhibition in 

 Valentine and Orson, soundly hissed for not handling 

 his friend, the bear, at the time of her death, in an affec- 

 tionate manner." 



Years rolled on, and the mountebank was for- 

 gotten. In 1820 a deep feeling of interest was 

 created for a renowned Egyptian traveller, and 

 then many persons recognised in Giovanni Bat- 

 tista Belzoni the poor Italian who made his first 

 appearance in England at a booth in Bartholo- 

 mew Fair ! Edward F. Rimbaclt. 



GENERAL WOLFE AT QUEBEC. 



{Continued from 2"^ S. vii. 390.) 



The continuation of the Officer's " Journal of 

 Transactions during the Siege of Quebec " would 

 have appeared sooner, but for the MS. having 

 been mislaid. With permission of the editor, it 

 will be completed shortly in the columns of " N. & 

 Q." To those readers of this periodical who have 

 written to me requesting me to proceed with the 

 publication, the above cause of delay will be suffi- 

 cient apology for not replying to their communi- 

 cations. 



I beg to acknowledge the kindness of G. Gal- 

 loway, Esq., Inverness, in allowing me the use of 

 the MS. to copy for publication. J. N. 



" July 19th, 1759. At 10 o'clock last night the General 

 came to our cantonments in order to see the shipping 

 pass the to-svn ; at 10 o'clock the Sunderland and Squir- 



