Sunday, 4th.—A lovely day. Mr. B——e having planned a ride as far as the lake, I saw after breakfast three or four good-looking horses arrive, caparisoned with showy, coloured, housings and demi-pique Spanish saddles: shortly after, their masters appeared, and off we pushed through mud knee-deep; we soon gained the shell road however, and found it as good as the streets of Mobile, hard, smooth, and binding as lime. It is a pity, as this material is to be procured in abundance, that it is not more generally applied: paving the streets with heavy stones, which soon sink deep in the alluvial soil, is, I fear, likely, without vast outlay, to prove labour lost; besides that these have to be imported from the North or from England, not a pebble existing here over the whole surface of the country.
At five o'clock, met a large party at dinner at Mr. B——'s; Madame B——e, a lady of the country, doing the honours with that vivacity and grace which is said to distinguish the French creoles of New Orleans: the dinner was excellent, a mixture of English and French cooking, both good, and admirably served; whilst for wines, we had Chateau Margarot of 1825, with frozen champagne, and Madeira, such as can only be produced in this country. The dinner party, with the exception of a couple of creole French gentlemen, was composed of my own countrymen; and little was here to remind one of a strange land, save the plates of clear ice sparkling on the table, and the faces of ebony shining behind our chairs.
NEW ORLEANS.
AMERICAN THEATRE.
On Monday the 5th I attended rehearsal at the American Theatre, and was pleased to find it a large, well-proportioned house, with three rows of boxes, a pit, or parquette, as it is termed, subdivided as in the French Theatre: each seat is numbered, and, being taken at the box-office, is secured to the purchaser for any part of the evening. The company was a very tolerable one; and in the person of a nephew of Mr. W. Farren's, I found an adjunct of much importance to me—an excellent old man.
My next anxiety was about my audience, not its numbers, as I was assured every seat in the house was disposed of, and this as far as could be allowed, for every night I might perform; but I felt solicitous with respect to its character and composition, of which I had received very discouraging reports. I kept however my apprehensions to myself, resolved to do my best after my own fashion, and abide the result as I best might.
On Tuesday I made my début; and never was man more agreeably surprised than myself when, after making my bow, I for the first time took a rapid survey of the aspect of the house: the parquette and dress-boxes were almost exclusively filled by ladies, coiffées with the taste which distinguishes Frenchwomen in every country, and which becomes peculiarly striking here, where are to be seen the finest heads of dark hair in the world; many wore bonnets of the latest Parisian fashion, and all were more dressed than it is usual to be at theatres in America. This attention to costume on the part of the ladies, added to their occupying the pit, obliges the gentlemen to adopt a correspondent neatness; and hence it occurs that, when the New Orleans theatre is attended by the belles of the city, it presents decidedly the most elegant-looking auditory of this country.
For myself, I found them in manner equal to their appearance; a greater degree of repose and gentility of demeanour I never remember to have noticed in any mixed assembly of any place. So much for report, which informed me I should find the American house here filled by noisy planters from the up-country and boisterous Mississippi boatmen. Let me however add, that my personal friends assure me a class of families attend my performances that is but rarely seen within this theatre, which the creoles do not usually patronize; and that this extreme decorum and exclusive appearance are assured by the places being all secured by families.