Early in the
century, Estcourt, the actor, was made provider to this club, and wore a
golden gridiron as a badge of office, and is thus alluded to in Dr.
King's 'Art of Cookery' (1709):--
'He that of honour, wit, and mirth partakes,
May be a fit companion o'er beef-stakes;
His name may be to future times enrolled
In Estcourt's book, whose gridiron's framed of gold.'
Estcourt was one of the best mimics of the day, and a keen satirist to
boot; in fact he seems to have owed much of his success on the stage to
his power of imitation, for while his own manner was inferior, he could
at pleasure copy exactly that of any celebrated actor. He _would_ be a
player. At fifteen he ran away from home, and joining a strolling
company, acted Roxana in woman's clothes: his friends pursued him, and,
changing his dress for that of a girl of the time, he tried to escape
them, but in vain. The histrionic youth was captured, and bound
apprentice in London town; the 'seven long years' of which did not cure
him of the itch for acting. But he was too good a wit for the stage, and
amused himself, though not always his audience, by interspersing his
part with his own remarks.
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