And Mr. Wigelsworth he flew,{11}
And Miss and Mistress W.
To bow and court'sy to the new
Arrival at their Boy;
9 "Lightly tread, 'tis hallow'd ground." I dare not go on;
you have been before me, Bernard: (vide vol. i. p. 295, of
Spy). But really it will be worth while for us to look in on
Goodered some fine morning, say three, a.m., when he gets
his print of Memnon home, to which, at Sheardowns, he was so
liberal as to subscribe. He will discourse to you of the
round table!
10 "If I stand here, I saw him."--Shakespeare, Hamlet.
11 The host of the Black Boy at Doncastor, who really pro-
vided race ordinaries in no ordinary way.
~277~~
Though he was Black, yet she was fair;
And sure I am that nothing there
With that clear nymph could aught compare,12
Or more glad eyes employ.
But where there is, after all, but little reason in many of the scenes
witnessed at the period I quote, why should I continue to rhyme about
them? Let it therefore suffice, that with much of spirit there was some
folly, with a good deal of splendour an alloy of dross, and, with real
consequence, a good deal of that which was assumed. Like a showy drama,
the players (there was a goodly company in the north), dresses (they
were of all colours of the rainbow), and decorations (also various and
admirable), during the time of performance, were of the first order; but
that over, and the green and dressing rooms displayed many a hero sunk
into native insignificance, and the trappings of Tamerlane degenerated
to the hungry coat of a Jeremy Diddler (and there were plenty of
"Raising the Wind" professors at Doncaster), or the materiel of the
king and queen of Denmark to the dilapidated wardrobe of Mr.
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