eview of Dr Johnson's edition of Shakespeare in 1765, and it was stated
that he had read them many years before in a Yorkshire town. This matter
has been discussed at some length in _Notes and Queries_, and it is
asserted that the foregoing is a forgery. Some interesting comments on
the controversy appeared in the issue of March 20th, 1869.

Women barbers in the olden time were by no means uncommon in this
country, and numerous accounts are given of the skilful manner they
handled the razor. When railways were unknown and travellers went by
stage-coach it took a considerable time to get from one important town
to another, and shaving operations were often performed during the
journey, and were usually done by women. In the byways of history we
meet with allusions to "the five women barbers who lived in Drury-lane,"
who are said to have shamefully maltreated a woman in the days of
Charles II. According to Aubrey, the Duchess of Albemarle was one of
them.

At the commencement of the nineteenth century a street near the Strand
was the haunt of black women who shaved with ease and dexterity. In St
Giles'-in-the-Fields was another female shaver, and yet another woman
wielder of the razor is mentioned in the "Topography of London," by J.T.
Smith. "On one occasion," writes Smith, "that I might indulge the humour
of being shaved by a woman, I repaired to the Seven Dials, where in
Great St Andrew's Street a female performed the operations, whilst her
husband, a strapping soldier in the Horse Guards, sat smoking his pipe."
He mentions another woman barber in Swallow Street.

Two men from Hull some time ago went by an early morning trip to
Scarborough, and getting up rather late the use of the razor was
postponed until they arrived at the watering-place. Shortly after
leaving the station they entered a barber's shop. A woman lathered their
faces, which operation, although skilfully performed, caused surprise
and gave rise to laughter. They fully expected a man would soon appear
to complete the work, but they were mistaken. The female took a piece of
brown paper from a shelf, and with this she held with her left hand the
customer's nose, and in an artistic manner shaved him with her right
hand. Some amusement was experienced, but the operation was finished
without an accident. The gentlemen often told the story of their shave
at Scarborough by a woman barber.

At Barnard Castle a wife frequently shaved the customers at the shop