CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
| PAGE | |
| In and about Drury Lane | [1] |
| About Master Betty | [20] |
| Charles Young and his Times | [54] |
| William Charles Macready | [82] |
| Private Theatricals | [108] |
| The Smell of the Lamps | [136] |
| A Line of French Actresses | [159] |
| Some Eccentricities of the French Stage | [189] |
| Northumberland House and the Percys | [216] |
| Leicester Fields | [238] |
| A Hundred Years ago | [285] |
IN AND ABOUT DRURY LANE.
In the afternoon of ‘Boxing-day,’ 1865, I had to pass through Drury Lane, and some of the worst of the ‘slums’ which find vent therein. There was a general movement in the place, and the effect was not savoury. There was a going to-and-fro of groups of people, and there was nothing picturesque in them; assemblings of children, but alas! nothing lovable in them. It was a universal holiday, yet its aspect was hideous.
Arrived at the stage-door of Drury Lane Theatre, I found my way on to the stage itself, where the last rehearsal of the pantomime, to be played for the first time that evening, was progressing.