On the road to the Derby - the Punch and Judy man (1870)
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This piece from The Graphic describes a travelling Punch show preparing before the Epsom Fair in 1870.
"In a green nook by the roadside Mr. Punch is having the last touch put to his toilet before making his bow on Epsom Downs, and going through that performance which, however objectionable from a strictly moral point of view, has such a charm for children of all growths. A career of heartless crime, commencing with wife-beating, and culminating with hanging that hangman with his own halter, must appear to a rigid moralist a somewhat dangerous entertainment for the young; but then children as a rule - that is, children who are good for anything - have no morals in the philosophical sense of the word; they do not discuss in their little minds the rights and the wrongs of the matter, but with infinite wisdom enjoy the fun of it. Theirs is not the age of reason but the age of imagination, and those who would make moral theses of children's storybooks, extracting all the delightful fighting from "Jack the Giant Killer" and all the craft from "Puss in Boots", should bear this in mind. Mr. Punch is a disreputable character we admit, but he commits his wickedness with such a genial humour, cracking jokes and heads with equal readiness, that no-one but a professor of ethics can quarrel with him. It is with him as with the clown who sits upon the baby to quiet it, they both belong to an ideal world wherein humour is man's greatest virtue.The Derby is a profitable day for all such worthy folk as Acts of Parliament used to class under the general title vagabonds; and in our sketch, while Mr. Punch is having his complexion mended and the necessary repairs done to his castle we see the Ethiopian Minstrels on the march, and the gipsy tents, which will be struck ere long, for that happy hunting-ground where broken meats and stray spoons reward the industrious, and where Punch, reinvigorated and refreshed, will doubtless reap a rich harvest."
Location: The Graphic (1870) Vol. 1, p.642. Archives and Heritage BF052.
