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Several curious performances…
Everybody loves a circus at Christmas, so here’s another poster from the Cambrics collection for you, this time from December 1787, featuring the nimble Mr Wilkinson in ‘several curious performances on the slack wire’. Not content with any straightforward acrobatic feat, Mr Wilkinson proposes to ‘sit on a chair on the wire with a table before him, with a bottle, glasses, candlesticks etc’… and by the looks of things, play the violin at the same time. The advertisement also promises spectacular performances from the Learned English Dog and his friend the Learned Military Horse, to whom ‘no other horse in this kingdom was ever equal’. Quite an evening’s entertainment for only 6d in the upper gallery!
