ced out of his lodgings in open day, and committed to Newgate, tried, and condemned to transportation for fourteen years.-Mr. Vernon was fubponed to the trial, and was obliged to appear when called on. Mr. Grierfon had a large family in great want of fubfiftence- had no living, and nothing but the name of a poor clergyman for his fupport. In circumftances fo defperate, he was glad to lay hold of any decent means for their fupport; and if the worst came to the worft, and the law fhould make a clergyman's joining people in wedlock a crime, which for ages had been a ceremony held in the first eftimation in the minds of men, why he would reconcile himself to the confequence, well knowing that whatever land he should be thrown upon it could not be worse than this. After he was fentenced a subscription was raised; but I have been informed he died on the voyage-his family were with him; but my knowledge of him was fo trifling, never having feen him except in those few months, that he was engaged as the marrying clergyman at the Savoy, that it is not likely I fhould be fully acquainted with particulars relative to that unfortunate clergyman.

My father in the intervening space, fupplied by Grierfon, had fo arranged his matters, as in his opinion would carry all before the wind; it

was not four weeks before he returned home. Mr. Brooks was his attorney, and the Reverend Mr. Brooks, brother to the attorney, who lately died at Norwich, was my father's curate for the public duties of the church. He was husband to Mrs. Brooks the authorefs who favoured the world with Rofina, Marian, &c. A perpetual round of company went on, but the family strongpurse was waining into a sudden decay with feasting the counsellors and lawyers who were to fup-port his caufe; and one and all affured him, over the flowing bowl, that victory was certain--but the event of war no mortal knows. Mr. Brooks.

being my father's officiate, an acquaintance with his family naturally occurred. Mrs. Brooks was his fecond wife-her mind was good, but her perfon much the contrary-fhe then had a literary turn, and her agreeable, fenfible remarks, observations, and inftructions, were given with affability, and proved to me of great advantage.

At her house I frequently met with Mr. Quin, who was using his intereft with Mr. Rich to produce Mrs. Brooks's Tragedy of Virginia, which was very properly rejected, as it was not only a very poor play, but one on the fame subject, by Crofts at Drury-Lane, and another by Moncrief at Covent-Garden, had been performed in 1753

and 1754, and neither of them attended with fuccefs; but Crofts's was by much the best.

Mrs. Woffington and Mrs. Elmy were also her vifitors. Mrs. Elmy knowing my inclination for the ftage, corrected many of my faults; her understanding was allowed by all to be very extenfive. She is still living, and now must be greatly in the vale of years; and I beg leave to affure her, that wherefoever she dwells, I have not forgot her leffons on pronunciation, manners, and characters. Nor can her merit in Octavia, Lady Grace, or Mrs. Marwood, be ever erazed from my mind. Mrs. Cholmondley, fister to Mrs. Woffington, was often there; but hearing I had dared at that time to imitate Mrs. Woffington, Mrs. Brooks never had influence to get me into any degree of favour with either of those ladies. I twice or thrice vifited Mrs. Woffington, in York-buildings, with Dr. and Mrs. Brooks, but it was a forced civility in compliance to them.

Mrs. Woffington had conceived a disgust not to be removed, and it was rooted even to hatred, as will hereafter appear. It must be observed, that thirty years ago, mimicking of the performers had not been attempted at the theatres, except by Mr. Garrick, and that when he was at Goodman's Fields, and by Mr. Foote at the Hay-Market. For

when Mr. Foote acted at Covent-Garden, he left out that part of his performance, and the HayMarket was the spot for him to be the hero of each tale, and where he fhone in a confpicuous light to every advantage. His mimickry at Covent-Garden, confifted of a whimsical teaching of stage pupils, the Puppets-the Chevalier Taylor and a Doctor `Heberden, two very public characters, and well known by every body.

I was the first that ever gave an entertainment of that kind at Drury-Lane or Covent-Garden Theatres; fince which, it has been fo often well and ill attempted, that though the actors and actreffes naturally do not approve of the practice, nor admire the talents of fuch an exhibitor, yet it does not by any means create the spleen and unhappiness it did formerly; for the frequent exertion of fuch comic powers certainly have taken off that edge, which thirty years ago was judged moft cutting, and not to be endured. The peculiarities of Mr. Delane, an actor of the first rank, were so severely pointed out by Mr. Garrick, in the character of Bayes, that it is faid to have actually occafioned Mr. Delane's flying to the bottle for relief to his hurt mind; he continued to use it with such excess that he never was himself again. In other men we faults can spy,

Each little fpeck and blemish find,

To our own ftronger errors blind.”

Mr. Delane is mentioned as a gentleman of family in Ireland, of liberal education, and great qualifications for the stage.

Mr. Garrick at the follicitation of his friendsremonftrances of the actors, (without whofe affiftance he could not live, for what avails a general without an army,) and from full conviction his own merit required not such aid as mimickry, as it was merely a trifling feather in his cap of fame; he, for once in his life did a generous action, and gave up what he no longer wanted.

But to return again to my father, who was at home fairing moft fumptuously every day on the gleanings of the marriage harvest, but with very little attention or anxiety paid to the evil hour; and I was in my glory, full of feasting, company, perfonating a hero at night in my own play-house, or vifiting one of the theatres, and fometimes both. If I did reflect, it was very briefly-I argued thus, that if the worst should happen, I could be a great actor in time, and did not doubt but that I fhould be a manager in reality

O glorious thought, I did enjoy it,
Tho' but in fancy :

But after funfhine comes a storm.

My father having persisted in the pursuit of his