The Merry Past 



come over London in the last hundred years is difficult 

 to realise to-day. 



At Easter time a pleasure fair was held in Tothill 

 Fields, Westminster, now the more decorous Vincent 

 Square. 



From a description of this fair as it existed in 1813, 

 we learn that gambling and dog-fighting were con- 

 sidered as part of the attractions. To these were 

 added a race between three damsels for a shift ; 

 jumping in a sack for a cheese, and grinning through 

 horse-collars for a hat, which considerably increased 

 the humour of the evening. The God of Mirth 

 prevailed with undisputed sway, and although a few 

 wrangles did occur, they terminated in the most 

 amicable manner. The swings and roundabouts were 

 almost as numerous here as at Greenwich, and their 

 proprietors, no doubt, reaped an ample harvest, for 

 their vehicles were literally in perpetual mation. 



The " Jew's Harp," a petty tavern in the district 

 which is now St. John's Wood and Regent's Park, was 

 a Sunday resort of citizens who were there wont to 

 indulge in the pleasures of tea and hot rolls. As late 

 as the early twenties of the last century this was a 

 wild and dreary tract of land, in which a daisy was a 

 flower of price, and though so close to London, it 

 was the frequent scene of violence and crime. The 

 only houses were a few miserable hovels, the only 

 real house being the tavern mentioned above. 



Not very far away were luxurious mansions — about 

 the nearest Langham House, on the site of which now 

 stands the Langham Hotel. One of the chief features 



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