the exposition of my views upon it to the record of my last performance, if I am permitted to complete the registry of my life's doings. On this occasion the theatre was crowded, and the applause throughout the play most enthusiastic. It was a great satisfaction to me; and a supper given at Talfourd's chambers in the Temple was a most agreeable wind-up to an eventful day.

The approaching coronation of George IV., 19th July, 1821, for which preparations had been making during the past year, occupied general attention, fifty-eight years having passed since a similar show had been exhibited. Of course the theatres took advantage of it, Covent Garden anticipating its pageantry in the crowning of King Henry V. in Shakespeare's historical play of the Second Part of King Henry IV.,' and Elliston waiting for the performance of the Fourth George in Westminster Abbey in order to present as faithful a copy of it as the dimensions of Drury Lane Theatre would allow. In King Henry IV. the part of the King was sent to me. John Kemble had revived the play in 1804, but produced little effect in the dying Bolingbroke, which was owing, as Harris informed me, to his being "too sick;" he was "only partially and imperfectly heard." Garrick had not given the prominence he had expected to the part; and for these reasons, and believing the audience would be impatient for the show with which the play was to end, I begged hard to be excused from appearing in it. But my objections were set aside, and very properly; it was necessary to support the cast with the whole strength of the company, and I could not be left out of the leading tragic part. To every line in it I gave the most deliberate attention, and felt the full power of its pathos. The audience hung intently on every word, and two distinct rounds of applause followed the close of the soliloquy on sleep, as I sank down upon the couch. The same tribute was evoked by the line, "Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought!"-which, I may say, was uttered directly from the heart. The admission of the perfect success of the performance was without dissent, and it was after being present at one of its representations that Lord Carlisle wished me to be introduced to him. He had seen and remembered Garrick in the part, and said very kind things of me in reference to it. He presented me with the volume of his

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poems, so unmercifully dealt with by Lord Byron; wished me to see his Zoffanys, which are amongst the best specimens of the artist; and gave me a very pressing invitation to visit him in the vacation at Castle Howard. The revival of the play rewarded the managers with houses crowded to the ceiling for many nights, nor was this attributable to the pageant only, for the acting was of the highest order. Farren as Shallow, Emery as Silence, Blanchard as Pistol, Charles Kemble as the Prince of Wales, Mrs. Davenport as Dame Quickly, were admirable. Fawcett was the best Falstaff then upon the stage, but he more excelled in other characters.

Mathews, so distinguished for his powers of mimicry, had more than once expressed his intention of adding a portrait of myself to his gallery of theatrical notables, and, entertaining a high opinion of him and liking him very much, I determined to present him with one. Jackson went to see me in Henry IV., the character in which I proposed to sit to him. The picture had made considerable progress, when Fawcett called with me one day to see it. On coming out from Jackson's studio, he exclaimed, "Why, William, you must not give that picture away-Jackson has never done anything like it!" When I reported this to Jackson, his quiet answer was, “Well: it is very easy to paint another; you would not mind paying for the ground-colours being rubbed in by another hand, would you?" My objections were vain to this proposal of my most liberal friend. His pupil made a rough copy of the picture, which Jackson, putting the first draft aside, finished at once. sent it with a kind note to Mathews, from whom I received. this answer:

I

"DEAR MACREADY,-It is not in my power to express satisfactorily to myself my feelings of surprise and pleasure on the receipt of your splendid present, and the gratifying letter that accompanied it. The value of the one

is very much enhanced by the other, and in this hurried acknowledgment (for Colonel Wigston is waiting while I write, as I understood you had left England early yesterday morning) I feel unable to express as I ought the gratification I feel on the unexpected occasion of your liberality and gratifying assurances of friendship, which from a man like yourself I feel particularly welcome to my self-love. The picture is a most beautiful work of art, and a perfect resemblance. A Garrick was removed to make room for it in an hour after my return home on Saturday evening. It was seen by many persons yesterday and universally admired. It is as great an ornament to my gallery as its original is to the profession and sphere he moves in.

"Believe that you have much gratified me, and I look forward on my return to England with great satisfaction to the assurance you have given me that I may have more opportunities than hitherto of increasing that friendship which I shall feel an honour to retain.

"Believe me, dear Macready, very gratefully and sincerely yours, "HIGHGATE HILL, July 1st."

"C. MATHEWS.

The original painting was not replaced on the easel until late in the year, when it was finished and exhibited at the British Gallery, Pall Mall, where it was pronounced a specimen of colouring equal to the best of the Flemish school.*

It was in the month of May in this year that the first number of a theatrical periodical entitled the 'Dramatic Enquirer' or 'Examiner'-I forget the exact name it borewas sent to me with "the Editor's compliments." The frontispiece was a portrait of myself in the character of Henri Quatre. The face had been copied from Jackson's drawing of Virginius, but the hair was turned back on the head, and armour on the chest and shoulders was substituted for the folds of the Roman drapery. The leading article was a biographical sketch of myself, exceedingly complimentary on my recent successes, but the utter amazement I felt in reading a romantic story, circumstantially detailed, of my rescue of a child from the flames of a burning house in Birmingham, may be well imagined. I retraced the past events of my bustling life, but among them there was nothing to support or justify this extraordinary invention. Fearful of its being supposed that I had in any degree participated in giving currency to such a fiction, I called next morning at the office of the publication in Catherine Street, Strand, requesting to see the Editor. He was "not within, but any message I might have for him," the woman, a respectable-looking person who had charge of the office, assured me she would "punctually convey." Accordingly, referring to the article in the magazine, I begged her to inform the Editor that no such circumstance as that related of the fire had ever occurred, and that it was my particular request he would in his next number give a direct contradiction to the statement. She promised faithfully to

* Jackson's portrait of Macready in the character of Henry IV. will ultimately, under his bequest, be placed in the National Portrait Gallery, as also will the marble bust of him by Behnes. The duplicate of the portrait, given to Mathews, is in the collection of the Garrick Club.-ED.

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repeat my words; but at the same time stated her conviction that the Editor had received the account from what he considered "unquestionable authority." I was earnest in repeating my denial and my hope that the next number would set the truth before the public. I heard no more of the publication, and fancy it must have died in its birth from the paucity of its readers but not so the story it had promulgated, as the sequel will show.

The attraction of the coronation in 'Henry IV.' was so great that Covent Garden Theatre was kept open beyond the usual period of its season-to my loss, having very lucrative country engagements in prospect; some I was prevented from fulfilling and obliged to relinquish. Being announced to appear at Birmingham on Monday, July 30th, 1821, I was greatly embarrassed by the continuance of my name in the Covent Garden playbill for King Henry IV. on the same evening. I had no alternative but to set off, after acting at Covent Garden on Saturday, and travel all night (there were no railways or telegrams then) to see Mr. Bunn, the Birmingham manager, on the Sunday, and explain to him the dilemma in which I was placed. It was thereon decided that my appearance at Birmingham should be deferred to the Wednesday, and he went back with me in my carriage to London, travelling again. through the night; all was amicably settled. I acted in London on Monday and Tuesday, and by another night journey was able to begin a very profitable fortnight's engagement at Birmingham on the next day, Wednesday, in the part of Virginius. From thence to Nottingham; on to Derby, to Cheltenham, Halifax, and Liverpool, where I remained three weeks, putting money in my purse, and, in all the high spirits of health and youth, enjoying the prosperity of my career. This brought me up to the middle of September, when I had set apart a fortnight for the enjoyment of a holiday after my hard work, and another gaze upon that lovely and grand Highland scenery which had so impressed its pictures on my memory, and which I can even now with pleasure call up before. me. My young friend Walker, who had accepted an invitation to accompany me in my short Highland tour, met me at Liverpool, and we proceeded together to Glasgow; I spent a couple of days there with my friends, Knowles and John Tait,

and, uniting business with pleasure, entered into an agreement with the managers of the theatre to act there two nights on my return from Argyleshire. My intention had been to visit Staffa and Icolmkill; but this the stormy state of the weather prevented. We took with us the eldest son of Knowles, a fine lad of twelve years of age, since dead in India. We made our way down the Clyde to Dumbarton and Loch Lomond, and up the lake as far as Tarbert, from whence, round the head of Loch Long, we ascended the wild pass of Glencroe, which brought us down to Cairndow on the shores of Loch Fine. Crossing the Lake to Inverara, we were here provided with a very stylish tilbury and good saddle-horse, sent forward from Glasgow to meet us. Alternating the drive and ride, we spent ten very pleasant days in a hurried tour by Dalmally on Loch Awe, Tyndrum, Loch Earn Head, Callander, Loch Katrine, Port Menteith, Stirling, and back to Glasgow. But for the perfect enjoyment of romantic scenery the tourist must be content to rough it in his daily walk of 20 or 30 miles with his knapsack at his back; his "foot must be like arrow free," that in his struggles upwards to the mountain's top, and in his extensive survey of the world of beauty stretched around and far below him, the excitement of his spirits as they drink in the spectacle may make him conscious of pleasure in the mere feeling of existence. Horses and carriage may be to some a luxury, but to the lover of nature they become in such scenes a positive encumbrance. I experienced the truth of this in contrasting with my former pedestrian ramble, the gayer turnout on this occasion. At Glasgow I recommenced to well-filled houses my "starring" course, pursuing it through Carlisle, Richmond in Yorkshire, Scarborough and Whitby, indulging in those places my appetite for the picturesque and beautiful in the noble ruins and striking scenery that give interest to them, whilst with every change of billet my banker's account was steadily improving, to which the theatres of Leicester, Nottingham, and Manchester very liberally also contributed.

But the time had arrived when I could no longer delay giving a direct answer to the overtures of Mr. Harris. My first Covent Garden engagement of five years expired with the last season, and he was anxious to secure my services for a similar term. Young was re-engaged, therefore a personal conference