In 1879 poor Belford's health broke down. Like many of his kind in the good-natured, easy-going, and absolutely unselfish circles to which he belonged, he had made little or no provision for such a disaster, and right cheerfully his friends came to his aid, just as in stage-land friends invariably do. Henry Irving played his famous character of Digby Grant in "The Two Roses," and this was supplemented by a performance of the "Trial" scene from "Pickwick," in which many prominent actors appeared. Ellen Terry, who had met William Belford in the Charles Kean days at the Princess's, very appropriately, as well as very beautifully, delivered an address from the deft pen of Clement Scott, which ran as follows:—
"To one and all a welcome! That's the way
To point a prologue, or to start a play;
But something tells me that your thoughts are tending
Towards one who starts no more—whose play is ending.
Nay, look not sad; no suppliant appears
To chase your smiles and undermine your tears;
I ask your sympathy, but it were folly
To join dear Belford's name with melancholy.
On such a merry heart rare friendship waits;