became involved in difficulties and endless litigation, and his latter years were clouded with sorrow; still his buoyant spirits never altogether left him, although "the observed of all observers" passed his latter years in compulsory residence in a quarter of the great town ignored by the Sybarites of St. James's.
When Madame Vestris established a theatre of her own, Sir Lumley thus sang, in the columns of The Times:—
Now Vestris, the tenth of the Muses,
To Mirth rears a fanciful dome,
We mark, while delight she infuses,
The Graces find beauty at home.
In her eye such vivacity glitters,
To her voice such perfections belong,
That care, and the life it embitters,
Find balm in the sweets of her song.
When monarchs o'er valleys are ranging,
A court is transferr'd to the green;
And flowers, transplanted, are changing
Not fragrance, but merely the scene.
'Tis circumstance dignifies places;
A desert is charming with spring!
And pleasure finds twenty new graces
Wherever the Vestris may sing!
Sir Lumley, who had long been unheard of in fashionable circles, died in London in 1850 or 1851.
Skiffy at the Birthday Ball.