Possibly Lamb was visiting Charles Chambers at Leamington when he saw Elliston. That he did see him there we know from Raymond’s book, where an amusing occurrence is described, illustrating Munden’s frugality. It seems that Lamb, Elliston and Munden drove together to Warwick Castle. On returning Munden stopped the carriage just outside Leamington, on the pretext that he had to make a call on an old friend—a regular device, as Elliston explained, to avoid being present at the inn when the hire of the carriage was paid.
Page 191, line 11. Wrench. See notes to “The Old Actors.” Wrench succeeded Elliston at Bath, and played in the same parts, and with something of the same manner.
Page 191, line 11 from foot. Appelles ... G.D. Apelles, painter to Alexander the Great, was said to let no day pass without experimenting with his pencil. G.D. was George Dyer, whom we first met in “Oxford in the Vacation.”
Page 192, line 6. Ranger. In Hoadley’s “Suspicious Husband,” one of Elliston’s great parts.
Page 192, line 17 from foot. Cibber. Colley Cibber (1671-1757), the actor, who was a very vain man, created the part of Foppington in 1697—his first great success.
Page 192, last line. St. Dunstan’s ... punctual giants. Old St. Dunstan Church, in Fleet Street, had huge figures which struck the hours, and which disappeared with the church, pulled down to make room for the present one some time before 1831. They are mentioned in Emily Barton’s story in Mrs. Leicester’s School (see Vol. III.). Moxon records that Lamb shed tears when the figures were taken away.
Page 193, line 6. Drury Lane. Drury Lane opened, under Elliston’s management, on October 4, 1819, with “Wild Oats,” in which he played Rover. He left the theatre, a bankrupt, in 1826.
Page 193, line 19. The ... Olympic. Lamb is wrong in his dates. Elliston’s tenancy of the Olympic preceded his reign at Drury Lane. It was to the Surrey that he retired after the Drury Lane period, producing there Jerrold’s “Black-Eyed Susan” in 1829.
Page 193, line 12 from foot. Sir A—— C——. Sir Anthony Carlisle (see note to “A Quakers’ Meeting").
Page 194, line 7. A Vestris. Madame Vestris (1797-1856), the great comedienne, who was one of Elliston’s stars at Drury Lane.
Page 195, line 6. Latinity. Elliston was buried in St. John’s Church, Waterloo Road, and a marble slab with a Latin inscription by Nicholas Torre, his son-in-law, is on the wall. Elliston was the nephew of Dr. Elliston, Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, who sent him to St. Paul’s School—not, however, that founded by Colet—but to St. Paul’s School, Covent Garden. He was intended for the Church.
* * * * *
Page 195. DETACHED THOUGHTS ON BOOKS AND READING.
London Magazine, July, 1822, where, at the end, were the words, “To be continued;” but Lamb did not return to the topic.