ships, which rose in their own defence, and formed a barrier around the devoted city." King Street is intimately connected with the strange fortunes of the beautiful and accomplished actress, Mrs. Oldfield. She was the daughter of a Captain Oldfield, who held a commission in the life guards, whose extravagance having reduced his widow to a state of extreme penury, the latter was compelled to seek an asylum in the house of her sister, Mrs. Voss, who kept the Mitre Tavern in St. James's Market, and who was apparently the Mrs. Voss once well known as the mistress of Sir Godfrey Kneller. In consequence of her reduced circumstances, Mrs. Oldfield was compelled to apprentice her beautiful daughter to Mrs. Wotton, a sempstress in King Street, from whom she occasionally obtained permission to visit her mother and aunt in St. James's Market. The great enjoyment of the young girl was in reading plays, and she was one day entertaining her relations at the Mitre with reading aloud to them, when the musical sweetness of her voice caught the ear of the celebrated dramatic writer, George Farquhar, who happened to be dining at the tavern, and who, after listening at the door for a few moments, entered the apartment. Struck with her surpassing grace and beauty, and the peculiar talent which she displayed for the stage, Farquhar, in conjunction with Sir John Vanbrugh, introduced her to Rich, the patentee of Drury Lane, and, at |