gone wrong with her poor humble friend Davis, and she was considerably in his debt. He was obliged to tell her of his necessities, and she was at great difficulty to get the money together to repay him. The nature of his claim may be guessed at by the occasional notices of his dressing her hair, as he was so frequently in the same company with the Inchbalds-it might be a long accumulation of outlays, never but for his misfortunes intended to be claimed; however, she paid him a sum of £43. 18s., and took his receipt in full of all demands. All these things were to be liquidated by her own privations. Her lodgings cost her seven shillings per week. She dined and supped almost daily with the Whitfields, and, when she did not, went without a dinner. We have no kind of doubt of her making a suitable return for the accommodation of their table. She sometimes accompanied them to their friend Mr. Babb's, who had presented her with some china, and seems to have greatly admired and respected her. She had but just rejoiced, which she sincerely did, at her friend Kemble's brilliant success in Hamlet, when she received intelligence that her poor mother died on the 6th of October, 1783. With her brother George Simpson, she went down in a post-chaise to Standingfield-passed a couple of days with her family, visited her mother's grave, and attended the Catholic service on the Sunday at Coldham they then returned to town.

Her

brother, on these visits to town, was at Mr. Twiss's house, whither she went to see him, and indulge herself with Mr. Twiss's conversation. George hesitated at first about taking the farm held by his late mother; but at the end of the year he took it. Of this concern, more will appear in due season.

Whether the hint might be caught from her performance in The East Indian,' we know not; but she consulted Sir Charles Bunbury in the summer, upon getting out to India; but the plan, however laid, fell to the ground. She had now, from such repeated discouragements, absolutely laid aside her pen; but continued to read with the greatest avidity, that she might be at least qualified to hold it, whenever managers in their wisdom might conceive it possible that an actress who walked in their pantomimes, should have wit or memory sufficient to furnish out a farce capable of diverting a London audience.

6

She read this year Rollin's Ancient History,' those of Greece and Rome, England and Ireland; 'The Pantheon,' as a necessary guide to 'Homer's Odyssey' translated by Pope and his assistants; 'Tasso' by Hoole, the Paradise Lost' and 'Regained,' Hudibras,' The Wars of Jugurtha,' 'Junius's Letters,' 'Hume's Essays,' 'The Letters of Voltaire,' and 'Essays upon Shakspeare;' 'Ovid,' some of Plato's works, The Dialogues of Lucian,' the Classics, of course, in the best translations. Such studies, with friendly correspon

dence, seem fully to account for all spare time she could have had in her profession. But she added a very cautious and meditated perusal of Johnson's Lives of the Poets' to all these; and they seem to have turned her mind to acute criticism, and shown her how to avoid the cant of that gratifying task, which is undertaken by minds of every description.

CHAPTER IX.

Kemble takes her lodgings-The spot described-Recently surveyed - The Whitfields and she quarrel-Twiss, the mutual friend, tries to reconcile them-A lodging taken in Hart StreetAt length has a farce accepted by Colman-Was induced to act in it-Was at the reading, not known to be the writer-The 'Mogul Tale' brings her 100 guineas-Stammers on the first night of it-Letters from Twiss and Kemble-Lovers attracted by the honey of success-Reminds Colman that he has a comedy also in his hands-Now then he reads it, admires it, christens it 'I'll tell you what'-Writes both Prologue and Epilogue-Its original cast-Letters from Mr. Twiss of great importanceDraft for £300-Buys into the Funds-" Appearance is against them "-Royal command-Liberal as she was covetous.

MRS. INCHBALD lodged at this time in a place sufficiently retired, at the house of a Mrs. Smith, No. 2, Leicester Court, Castle Street, Leicester Fields. The entrance we well remember was a wooden gate, which closed in a paved court-yard, that seemed hardly to need so idle a defence; but it was cheap and silent, and when she left. town, Kemble, that his studies might be uninterrupted, (as there they must be,) wrote to her that "her late apartment now called him lord and

master." Like Bobadil at poor Cobb's," he found the cabin was convenient;" and the first letter we had from him was dated from this chosen spot. From his gate, we are sure the master of the premises must have been a carpenter. The house, too, had a front of planks, laid over one another to bear off rain, and was painted of a neat-enough stone colour. It may be thought entitled to this notice; for assuredly, two such tenants as the writer of the Simple Story,' and the performer of Coriolanus, have but rarely inhabited the same dwelling.

We have been this day (1832) to look again at a tenement, which nothing for near fifty years has called upon us to notice. It remains as it was in 1784, notwithstanding the encroaching improvements that seem to be dressing London up in universal elegance, as if it contained no abodes for any but the wealthy and the prosperous. The two houses remain as they were in our youth. The carpenter's wooden palisades alone, with the wicket, have given way to an iron swing-gate and latch, about three feet high; so that, at night, it has less the appearance of an elephant's cage. The owner of the spot seemed somewhat surprised that we should survey his wooden walls thus curiously; so we told him the house, half a century ago, had harboured a fair friend of ours. He smiled, and we parted.

But not to anticipate upon the course of this