There are three theatres at New York, all of which we visited.  The Park Theatre is the only one licensed by fashion, but the Bowery is infinitely superior in beauty; it is indeed as pretty a theatre as I ever entered, perfect as to size and proportion, elegantly decorated, and the scenery and machinery equal to any in London, but it is not the fashion.  The Chatham is so utterly condemned by bon ton, that it requires some courage to decide upon going there; nor do I think my curiosity would have penetrated so far, had I not seen Miss Mitford’s Rienzi advertised there.  It was the first opportunity I had had of seeing it played, and spite of very indifferent acting, I was delighted.  The interest must have been great, for till the curtain fell, I saw not one quarter of the queer things around me:  then I observed in the front row of a dress-box a lady performing the most maternal office possible; several gentlemen without their coats, and a general air of contempt for the decencies of life, certainly more than usually revolting.

At the Park Theatre I again saw the American Roscius, Mr. Forrest.  He played the part of Damon, and roared, I thought, very unlike a nightingale.  I cannot admire this celebrated performer.

Another night we saw Cinderella there; Mrs. Austin was the prima donna, and much admired.  The piece was extremely well got up, and on this occasion we saw the Park Theatre to advantage, for it was filled with well-dressed company; but still we saw many “yet unrazored lips” polluted with the grim tinge of the hateful tobacco, and heard, without ceasing, the spitting, which of course is its consequence.  If their theatres had the orchestra of the Feydeau, and a choir of angels to boot, I could find but little pleasure, so long as they were followed by this running accompaniment of thorough base.

Whilst at New York, the prospectus of a fashionable boarding-school was presented to me.  I made some extracts from it, as a specimen of the enlarged scale of instruction proposed for young females.

Brooklyn Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies, Brooklyn Heights, opposite the City of New York.

          JUNIOR DEPARTMENT

          Sixth Class

Latin Grammar, Liber Primus; Jacob’s Latin Reader, (first part); Modern Geography; Intellectual and Practical Arithmetic finished; Dr. Barber’s Grammar of Elocution; Writing, Spelling,
Composition, and Vocal Music.

          Fifth Class

Jacob’s Latin Reader, (second part); Roman Antiquities, Sallust; Clark’s Introduction to the Making of Latin; Ancient and Sacred Geography; Studies of Poetry; Short Treatise on Rhetoric; Map Drawing, Composition, Spelling, and Vocal Music.

          Fourth Class

Caesar’s Commentaries; first five books of Virgil’s Aeneid; Mythology; Watts on the Mind; Political Geography, (Woodbridge’s large work); Natural History; Treatise on the Globes; Ancient History; Studies of Poetry concluded; English Grammar, Composition, Spelling, and Vocal Music.