My father, as I have mentioned, lived at Hitchin, about six miles from Knebworth, and my professional duties calling me so early to town, I arranged to sleep at Hitchin, and go to London by an early train in the morning.  Sir Edward was much concerned at all this, and again wondered whether his library could not be appropriated.  But the other was the only practicable plan, and was adopted.  Every day I was in court by nine o’clock, sometimes worked till five, then went by rail to Stevenage and drove to Knebworth, three miles.  That was the routine.  It was then time to put on my Elizabethan ruff and hose.  After the play I once more donned my private costume, and supped luxuriously at a round table, where all our splendid company were assembled.

After supper some of us used to retire to Douglas Jerrold’s room in one of the towers, and there we spent a jovial evening, prolonging the entertainment until the small hours of the morning.

Then my fly, which had been waiting a long time, enabled me to reach Hitchin and get three hours’ sleep.

All this was hard work, but I was really strong, and in the best of health, so that I enjoyed the labour as well as the pleasure.  One cannot now conceive how it was possible to go through so much without breaking down.  I attribute it, however, to the attendant excitement, which braced me up, and have always found that excitement will enable you to exceed your normal strength.

I had very many theatrical friends, all of them delightful in every way.  Amongst them Wright and Paul Bedford.  Such companions as these are not to be met with twice, each with his individuality, while the two in combination were incomparable.  They kept one in a perpetual state of laughter.  Paul was irresistible in his drollery, and whether it was mimicry or original humour, you could not but revel in its quaint conceits.

Such men are benefactors; they brighten the darkest hours of existence, turn sorrow into laughter, and enable men to forget their troubles and live a little while in the sunshine of humour.  Banish philosophy if you please, banish ambition if you must banish something, but leave us humour, the light of the social world.  All who have experienced its beautiful influence can appreciate its value, and understand it as one of the choicest blessings conferred on our existence.

The dullest company was enlivened when Wright entered upon the scene.  I remember Paul being told one day at the Garrick Club that a certain poor barrister, who had been an actor, was going to marry the daughter of an old friend.  “Ah!” said he, “yes, he’s a lover without spangles.”

Who but Paul would have thought of so grotesque a simile?  And yet its applicability was simply due to the language of the stage.

I remember Robson, too, and his wonderful acting; he had no rival.  Nature had given him the talent which Art had cultivated to the highest perfection.  Next come the Keelys’ impersonations of every phase of dramatic life—­originals in acting, and actors of originals.