A strolling showman, who was exhibiting a "Mermaid" at Durham, was taken into custody the other day, a constable, an unbelieving dog, having conceived that the mermaid was not real, wanting all those charms which (as Tennyson makes his Mermaid sing) could so fire the inmates of the deep that
"The great sea-snake under the sea,
From his coiled sleeps in the central deeps,
Would slowly trail himself seven-fold
Round the hall where I sate, and look in at the gate,
With his large calm eyes, for the love of me."
When uncovered the Durham mermaid, shown for "the small charge of a penny," was found to consist of a skin stuffed with cotton rags, and a face fashioned out of a fresh turnip.
Inverness Courier, 29th November 1849.
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