Note 359 — Chapter XXI · OTHER SIGHTS.

One of the most popular exhibitions was the puppet shows kept by Robert Powell, a dwarfish deformity. 'This is Mr. Powell—That's he—the little Crooked Gentleman, that holds a Staff in his Hand, without which he must fall.'[359] His 'Punch's Theatre' was in the little Piazza, Covent Garden—and Steele makes the under sexton of St. Paul's[360] Church grumble at his entertainment, because it took people away from him. Defoe says: 'Mr. Powell by Subscriptions and full Houses, has gathered such Wealth as is ten times sufficient to buy all the Poets in England; that he seldom goes out without his Chair, and thrives on this incredible Folly to that degree, that, were he a Freeman, he might hope that some future Puppet Show might celebrate his being Lord Mayor, as he has done Sir R. Whittington.'[361] Both in the Tatler and Spectator he is frequently referred to, especially in the former. In the season he took himself and his puppets to Bath, so that he always kept them employed.