James Beatson, a noted street character of the early 19th century, eked out his living by displaying beetles in bottles and a peepshow of small pictures inside a box viewed through magnifying glasses. ‘Show Jamie’ also featured in Geikie’s Etchings Illustrative of Scottish Life and Character (1841) with a biography complied by the artist’s friend, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder. The National Galleries of Scotland have a full-length drawing and an oil sketch by Geikie of the same person.