His Majesty and their Royal Highnesses, with several other persons of Quality; for which he received a considerable Gratuity. The Lifting a Weight of Two Thousand Two Hundred and Forty Pounds. His holding an extraordinary large Cart Horse; and Breaking a Rope which will bear Three Thousand Five Hundred weight. Beginning exactly at 2, and ending at 4. The Boxes, 4s.; the Pit, 2s. 6d.; 1st Gallery, 28.; Upper Gallery, 1s. Whereas, several scandalous Persons have given out that they can do as much as any of the Brothers, we do offer to such Persons 100l. reward, if he can perform the said matters of strength, as they do, provided the Pretender will forfeit 201. if he doth not. The day it is perform'd, will be affixed a signal Flag on the Theatre. No money to be return'd after once paid.'

The following in relation to the same place, is of the year 1698, from No. 325 of the "Post Boy." "DORSET GARDENS. Great preparations are making for a new Opera in the Playhouse in Dorset Garden, of which there is great expectation, the scenes being several new sets, and of a model different from all that have been used in any theatre whatever, being twice as high as any of the former scenes."

It would appear, however, that there was a theatre in this district before the one built by Sir Christopher Wren. The following is quoted by Malone in his "Prologomena" to Shakspeare, vol. iii. page 287, and shows that one was in existence in 1634. It is a memorandum from the MS. book of

Sir Henry Herbert, master of the revels to King Charles I. "I committed Cromes, a broker in Long Lane, the 16th of February, 1634, to the Marshalsey, for lending a church robe with the name of Jesus upon it, to the players in Salisbury Court, to represent a Flamen, a priest of the heathens. Upon his petition of submission and acknowledgment of his fault, I released him the 17th of February, 1634."

In a house near the centre of Salisbury Square, or Salisbury Court, as it was then called, Richardson wrote his "Pamela." He resided here for some years, and then removed to Fulham, where he built a range of warehouses and printing - offices. In Salisbury Court he was visited by some of the most eminent men of his age, including, among others, Hogarth, Dr. Johnson, Secker, archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Grantham. The following account of his manners and mode of life, was given by a lady who knew him well, to the editress of his correspondence, the well-known Mrs. Barbauld. 'My first recollection of Richardson," says the lady, "was in the house in the centre of Salisbury Square, or Salisbury Court, as it was then called; and of being admitted as a playful child into his study, where I have often seen Dr. Young and others; and where I was generally caressed, and rewarded with biscuits or bonbons of some kind or other, and sometimes with books, for which he, and some more of my friends, kindly encouraged a taste, even at that early age, which has adhered to me all my long life,

and continues to be the solace of many a painful hour. I recollect that he used to drop in at my father's, for we lived nearly opposite, late in the evening to supper; when, as he would say, he had worked as long as his eyes and nerves would let him, and was come to relax with a little friendly and domestic chat.

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"He had many protégées ;-a Miss Rosine, from Portugal, was consigned to his care; but of her, being then at school, I never saw much. Most of the ladies that resided much at his house acquired a certain degree of fastidiousness and delicate refinement, which, though amiable in itself, rather disqualified them from appearing in general society to the advantage that might have been expected, and rendered an intercourse with the world uneasy to themselves, giving a peculiar air of shyness and reserve to their whole address; of which habits his own daughters partook, in a degree that has been thought by some a little to obscure those really valuable qualifications and talents they undoubtedly possessed. Yet this was supposed to be owing more to Mrs. Richardson than to him; who, though a truly good woman, had high and Harlowean notions of parental authority, and kept the ladies in such order, and at such a distance, that he often lamented, as I have been told by my mother, that they were not more open and conversible with him.

"Besides those I have already named, I well remember a Mrs. Donellan, a venerable old lady, with sharp, piercing eyes; Miss Mulso (afterwards

Mrs. Chapone), &c., &c.; Secker, archbishop of Canterbury; Sir Thomas Robinson (Lord Grantham), &c., &c., who were frequent visitors at his house in town and country. The ladies I have named were often staying at North End, at the period of his highest glory and reputation; and in their company and conversation his genius was matured. His benevolence was unbounded, as his manner of diffusing it was delicate and refined."

Salisbury Court is famous as the scene of the Mug-house riots of 1716. Party feeling ran high in London at that time; and various mug-houses, or places of resort of the Whig party, where they drank beer out of small mugs, existed in various parts of London and Westminster; the three most noted being in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street; Tavistock Street, Covent Garden; and Long Acre. A traveller in England at this time, whose account is quoted in "Hone's Table Book," part i., page 378, describes a mug-house meeting. He says of the one he saw, that "A mixture of gentlemen, lawyers, and tradesmen met in a great room; a grave old gentleman in his grey hairs, and nearly ninety years of age, was their president, (one who must have remembered the execution of Charles I.,) and sat in an arm-chair some steps higher than the rest. A harp played all the while at the lower end of the room, and now and then one of the company rose and entertained the rest with a song, and, by the by, (he says,) some were good masters. Nothing was drank but ale, and every gentlemen chalked on the table as it was

brought in; and every one also, as in a coffee-house, retired when he pleased." From this description, it is clear our traveller visited the mug-house upon some quiet evening, when there was no political matter under discussion. It was just after the chief actors in the Rebellion of 1715 had paid the penalty of their offences with their blood, when the Mughouse riots broke out. The Whigs, who met in the mug-house kept by Mr. Read in Salisbury Court, were peculiarly noisy in their cups, and thus rendered themselves obnoxious to the mob, and in those days the mob was Tory. On one occasion they were even more than usually clamorous, and their violent party toasts, which they drank in the parlour, with open windows, soon collected a crowd of people. These became at last so incensed by the toasts and by some insulting remarks of some inebriated Whig inside, that they commenced a furious attack upon the house, swearing that they would level it with the ground, and make a bonfire of its materials in the middle of Fleet Street. The Whigs immediately closed their windows, barricaded the doors, and sent a messenger by a back-door to the mug-house in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, begging that the persons there assembled would come to the rescue. The call was immediately responded to; the mughouse men proceeded in a body down the Strand and Fleet Street, armed with staves and bludgeons, and commenced an attack on the mob, which still threatened the demolition of the house. Being joined by those within, who sallied out armed with pokers