Philip Astley, originally a cavalry soldier, commenced horsemanship in 1763, in an open field at Lambeth. He built his first theatre partly with £60, the produce of an unowned diamond ring which he found on Westminster Bridge. Andrew Ducrow, subsequently proprietor of the Amphitheatre, was born at the Nag's Head, Borough, in 1793, when his father, Peter Ducrow, a native of Bruges, was "the Flemish Hercules" at Astley's. The fire in 1841 arose from ignited wadding, such as caused the destruction of the old Globe Theatre in 1613, and Covent Garden Theatre in 1808. Andrew Ducrow died January 26, 1842, of mental derangement and paralysis, produced by the above catastrophe.
Covent Garden theatre is the second one built on its site,—it being a strange fact that nearly all the theatres in London have been burnt down from time to time. It was here that the "O.P.," or "Old Prices," riots took place in 1804, and continued for seventy-seven nights, the management having made an attempt to raise the prices, but at last they had to back down before the popular storm. Incledon, Charles Kemble, Mrs. Glover, George Frederick Cooke, Miss O'Neill, Macready, Farren, Fanny Kemble, Adelaide Kemble and Edmund Kean have strutted their brief hours on its stage, but now the house is entirely devoted to opera.
Drury Lane Theatre, or "Old Drury," as it is sometimes known, and was at one time called the "Wilderness" by Mrs. Siddons, is situated in one of the lowest quarters of London, where vice, crime, poverty and drunkenness abound, but still it is frequented by the best classes of the play-going public. Here, one night in August, 1869, I saw "Formosa" played to a very full house, the excitement about the Harvard and Oxford race having culminated about this time. It was then under the direction of Mr. Dion Boucicault, who has made and lost two or three fortunes in the management of theatres. All the famous disciples of the histrionic art who live in English dramatic history, have appeared during the last two hundred years on the boards of Old Drury.
In 1799 sixteen persons were trodden to death in an alarm which took place at the Haymarket theatre.
There is a little theatre called the Adelphi, in the Strand, near Cecil street where I had rooms for some time, and this little dirty theatre, which has a vestibule like the entrance to a New York lager bier saloon, has been very much frequented by Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. This royal lady has some queer tastes, and among them is a fondness for broad farce or low comedy. She is also fond of the piano, which she learned from a Mrs. Anderson, and sometimes when she plays she likes to be accompanied by two or three of the most distinguished violinists that can be procured. The Queen used to sing, and in the old days, when the world was new to her and before she had been widowed, it was the custom at the nice little private parties which she gave, to have Prince Albert sing with her, while the Hon. Mrs. Grey, wife of her Secretary (and a lady who had a good deal of work in helping to compose the Queen's memoirs), performed on the piano.
In every place of amusement in London, be it high or low, there is a place set apart for the Queen's family, so that should she take a notion to visit the most out of the way place, she may be certain of being able to secure a secluded nook or loge where she will not be intruded upon.
A GIN PUBLIC IN THE NEW CUT.
In the vicinity of all the theatres of the lower grade in and about London, I found nests of cheap public houses or drinking bars, and toward nine or ten o'clock, while the performances are at the height of dramatic agony, these resorts are crowded, with persons of both sexes, who have slipped out of the amusement halls to get a pint of beer or "tuppence" worth of "gin neat." Gin "neat" is gin without water or sugar, and this drink is very popular among women of the lowest class in London.
