an especial favour, I acted Pizarro in Sheridan's version of Kotzebue's drama. Miss Booth's benefit, June 30th, gave me the part of Posthumus in Cymbeline,' which, as a Shakespearean character added to my list, was firm ground to me. Young was the Iachimo. In a review of the results of this season, which ended with the play of Rob Roy, July 16th, I could not be blind to the fact that my position was improved. It was incontestable that I had won upon opinion, both in the public voice and in the estimation of the manager and the actors; and regaining confidence in determination of will, and putting faith in the power of resolution, I looked more cheerily and hopefully into the future. "Possunt, quia posse videntur."

* Things become possible when they seem to be possible.-Ed.

1818-19.

KEELEY.

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CHAPTER XII.

1818-1819.-Keeley-Intercourse with other actors-Anecdote of BarryMacready acting gratuitously for his father-Visit to a coal mine near Newcastle-London season-Michael Ducas in Lewis's 'Adelgitha'--Romani in Proof Presumptive'-Dumont in 'Jane Shore'-' Earl of Warwick'— Miss Somerville-Sheil's 'Evadne'-Father's difficulties renewed-Maturin's "Fredolfo -Condemned on first night-Mrs. Siddons's reappearance in Lady Randolph for Charles Kemble's benefit-Miss O'Neill's last performance in London-Edinburgh-Glasgow-Falls of the Clyde-Pedestrian tour in the Highlands -Professional study in a lunatic asylum-Swansea-Bristol.

FROM London I proceeded to Birmingham, where Elliston was lessee of the theatre, who paid me £100 for a week's performance. Mr. Keeley was a member of the company, and it was with pleasure I noted in him, young as he was, the humour and theatrical aptitude that have since been so universally and pleasantly recognised. It had always been in

direct contrariety to my disposition and my taste, even in London, to adopt the "hail-fellow-well-met" familiarity of the green-rooms, into which (when I entered them, which was not often) I carried the manners and address habitual with me in general society. I am well aware this subjected me to unpopularity with very many in the profession, among whom I bore the character of being haughty and overbearing. On the occasion of this Birmingham engagement it was reported to me that the actors had come to an agreement to "cut" me whenever I should go into the green-room, and that Keeley had enjoyed their disappointment in the tables being turned by my never affording them the opportunity. There were other causes tending to alienate my fellow-labourers, among which was the zeal, probably sometimes outstripping discretion, which I carried into the pursuit of our art, at rehearsals requiring of

them a degree of accuracy and attention that they were perhaps too indolent, or indisposed, or sometimes unable to give. A better judgment would have made more allowance for them. There was some humour in the retort of a country actor of the name of Knipe to the famous Barry, who was, like myself, impatient of the incompetency of the players of the company. "Do not speak your speech, sir, in that drawling way," said Barry in his energetic manner; "look at me, sir; speak it in this way-To ransom home revolted Mortimer!'-that's the way to speak it, sir." To which the actor immediately replied, "I know that, sir-that is the way; but you'll please to remember you get £100 a week for speaking it in your way, and I only get thirty shillings for mine! Give me £100, and I'll speak it your way; but I'm not going to do for thirty shillings what you get paid £100 for."

On the intimation from a mutual friend, Mr. W. Loraine, that a professional visit to my father might relieve his affairs from much embarrassment, I immediately made a very satisfactory arrangement to act for him gratuitously in Miss O'Neill's engagement, the ordinary receipts to be equally divided, her benefit to be entirely her own, and she to give her services on the night announced as mine. Expectation was fully answered, and my father was for the time set at ease; but one of his strange fits of caprice placed me in a very awkward predicament. I had readily consented to repeat for Miss O'Neill's benefit 'Rob Roy,' which I had acted as the second piece for my own, i.e. my father's benefit; without any shadow of pretence he interfered, and refused his permission. It availed nothing that I overruled his prohibition: Miss O'Neill very naturally declined to take the piece. A brief and courteous correspondence with Mr. R. O'Neill exonerated me from all participation in the discourtesy, and we happily parted on the best understanding.

Some idle days on my hands were given to sightseeing. The old castle, Sunderland Iron Bridge, &c., were interesting, but the chief object of my curiosity, when in the North, had always been the working of a coal-mine. I had a letter to the manager or head-man of a mine: the name does not remain with me, but it was the deepest but one in the whole coal region. Loder, a violinist of great note in his day (there had been no Paganinis, Vieux Temps, Ole Bulls, or Winiawskis

1818-19.

DESCENT INTO A COAL MINE.

171

then), was dining with my father, and, hearing my intention, expressed his wish to accompany me the next morning. Accordingly at the appointed hour next day a chaise took us to the little hamlet at the pit's mouth, about six or seven miles from Newcastle. Arrived there, the manager receiving us very civilly, informed us that we must put on miners' dresses. This was not a very agreeable introduction, but we at once understood its necessity, and there we were two complete miners, save and except the want of smudge upon our faces, which however we did not long wait for. A stout, elderly, steadylooking man was directed to be our guide. The basket was pulled to the pit's mouth, and I must confess to a flutter of the heart when I saw the craft in which we were to make our downward voyage, feeling, like Acres, very much inclined to

66

run;" but casting a look on my companion, and seeing his face as pale as ashes, restored my courage, and with a hearty laugh I got into one side of the basket, whilst he slowly took his place in the other: our guide slung his thigh into the noose of a chain, and the steam-engine began to lower us down at half-rate pace, which seemed to me what might be better termed "double-quick time."

Once or twice in our downward course I looked up aloft, when the aperture through which we had emerged appeared like "a star of smallest magnitude," and our guide, when we had made what seemed a great distance of depth, kept constantly striking against the wall of the shaft the particular sort of rough stick he carried. I was wondering what his object could be, perceiving there was some significance in the action, when he enlightened us not very agreeably with the exclamation, “Now then I'll tell ye, when we get half-way doon." It was with a suppressed groan I learned that we were still dangling at such an awful distance from the bottom. But the deepest shaft, like the longest day, will have an end; we reached a solid footing at last, and extricating ourselves from our basket, sat down in a scooped-out recess to "get our sight," as our guide, who was providing himself with a light, directed us before setting out on our tour through this gnome's world of wonders.

A world it seemed to be from the activity pervading it. There were horses with long trains of creels of coal, and

their drivers; a steam-engine at work; a pond for the horses to wash in. But a partial view was all we could obtain in the darkness visible by the help of our conductor's lamp. We traversed gallery after gallery, sometimes more than six feet in height; at other times we were obliged to walk in a stooping posture. At given distances through the galleries there were trap-doors, with pulleys and weights, to ensure a frequent circulation of air; under an open shaft was an immense roaring fire, kept up, like the great lung of the excavation, for a continual draught of pure air from above. It particularly surprised me to see the process of blasting a huge mass of coal detached, which the miners, naked to their waists, vigorously broke up and deposited in the creels. The air was very thick and close, and heavy on the breath; but the particular oppression I experienced was in the sensation of my ears. In one compartment, as the trap-door shut after and enclosed us, our guide stopped us, and, apparently with great relish, said, "Now I'll show you something;" then lighting a match at his lamp, he raised it to the top of the seam, and igniting the gas or firedamp, in an instant the roof was all on flame. For the uninitiated it was a very nervous minute. "Thank you," said I, "that will do." "Oh, there's no danger," returned he; "d'ye think I'd have lighted it if I did not well know?" "I have no doubt," I continued, "but we're perfectly satisfied;" upon which, half grumbling at the effect of his pyrotechnic display, he continued, "Oh, I'll put it out in a minute, ye'll see,” and beating the ceiling with his hat, he very soon extinguished every trace of fire. We were some hours below, for our slow walk was one of miles, and at the extreme point of our progress our guide informed us that "we were just under the middle of the Tyne." In some places the heat was very great, and the perspiration flowed profusely down our blackened faces. We were glad to have seen what was to me a wonderful sight, but at the same time it was not the least part of our enjoyment to take in a good draught of the fresh air of heaven, and to find ourselves standing again on the outside of the earthy crust. After a hearty laugh at the figures we presented to each other, we took the benefit of the cold water set for us, exchanged our miners' suits for our own apparel, and, recompensing our conductor, got merrily into our chaise for our return to Newcastle.