By Edward Dalziel.
Published by Messrs. D. Appleton & Co., New York.
We saw much of Mr. William Nelson, the eldest brother, during his visits to London, which were by no means infrequent. He was a man with a large, warm heart, and kindly, genial disposition, and though holding broad views in most matters, he (like the majority of his countrymen in the last generation) looked for many years with the greatest aversion on all things theatrical, and from his early training considered "the door of the theatre as the gate to destruction." At one of his quiet dinner parties Madame Antoinette Stirling and her husband were present, and the talk naturally turned on music and the drama, when he related the following as his first introduction to theatrical entertainments:
"On one occasion I was, very reluctantly, prevailed upon to go to the theatre to see the comic opera, Les Cloches de Corneville. At first I was indifferent to what was going on, but as the play progressed my interest increased so much that at the end I came away delighted at what I had seen, and the next morning, turning the matter over, I found myself none the worse, either bodily or mentally, for having been at the play. Indeed, the performance gave me so much pleasure, that I resolved to repeat the indulgence on every possible opportunity; but that, of course, could not be done in Edinburgh. Feeling that I have lost a great deal of intellectual enjoyment, I make a point of going to a theatre on every disengaged evening I have when in London."
"In the mid-water, moving very slowly,
With measured stroke of dripping oars, a boat
Appeared out of the fading mist of the morning."
"The Exiles of Oona."—Robert Buchanan.
By Thomas Dalziel.