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 Many particulars about Powell are stated in "A Second Tale of a Tub: or the History of Robert Powell, the Puppet showman," London: 1715. The frontispiece gives a picture of the exhibition, in which Punch is represented in a sugar loaf hat, with no hooked nose or chin; a front view of him being given, no hump is visible. This portrait would not now be recognised as a likeness of Punch; it does not nearly so much resemble him as does the 1663 portrait of Mother Shipton, now first brought face to face with her lively relative.

Celebrated contributors to Punch, have speculated that as it was recorded in 1715 that "the Dutch were the most expert nation in the world for puppet-shows," probably puppet-shows and Punch were brought to England when King William came over from Holland in 1688, twenty-one years before the earliest record of his advent.

But in the Punch-like likeness of Mother Shipton published in 1663, are several of the characteristic features of Punch, indicating his existence in England twenty-five years