Several of its members distinguished themselves greatly in after years.  Among these I may mention Miss Marie Wilton (now Lady Bancroft) and Miss Madge Robertson (now Mrs. Kendal).

Lady Bancroft had left the company before I joined it, but Mrs. Kendal was there, and so was Miss Henrietta Hodson (afterwards Mrs. Labouchere).  I was much struck at that time by Mrs. Kendal’s singing.  Her voice was beautiful.  As an example of how anything can be twisted to make mischief, I may quote here an absurd tarradiddle about Mrs. Kendal never forgetting in after years that in the Bristol stock company she had to play the singing fairy to my Titania in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”  The simple fact, of course, was that she had the best voice in the company, and was of such infinite value in singing parts that no manager in his senses would have taken her out of them.  There was no question of my taking precedence of her, or of her playing second fiddle to me.

Miss Hodson was a brilliant burlesque actress, a good singer, and a capital dancer.  She had great personal charm, too, and was an enormous favorite with the Bristol public.  I cannot exactly call her a “rival” of my sister Kate’s, for Kate was the “principal lady” or “star,” and Henrietta Hodson the “soubrette,” and, in burlesque, the “principal boy.”  Nevertheless, there were certainly rival factions of admirers, and the friendly antagonism between the Hodsonites and the Terryites used to amuse us all greatly.

We were petted, spoiled, and applauded to our heart’s content, but I don’t think it did us any harm.  We all had scores of admirers, but their youthful ardor seemed to be satisfied by tracking us when we went to rehearsal in the morning and waiting for us outside the stage-door at night.

When Kate and I had a “benefit” night, they had an opportunity of coming to rather closer quarters, for on these occasions tickets could be bought from members of the company, as well as at the box-office of the theater.

Our lodgings in Queen Square were besieged by Bristol youths who were anxious to get a glimpse of the Terrys.  The Terrys demurely chatted with them and sold them tickets.  My mother was most vigilant in her role of duenna, and from the time I first went on the stage until I was a grown woman I can never remember going home unaccompanied by either her or my father.

The leading male members of Mr. Chute’s stock company were Arthur Wood (an admirable comedian), William George Rignold, W.H.  Vernon, and Charles Coghlan.  At this time Charles Coghlan was acting magnificently, and dressing each of his characters so correctly and so perfectly that most of the audience did not understand it.  For instance, as Glavis, in “The Lady of Lyons,” he looked a picture of the Directoire fop.  He did not compromise in any single detail, but wore the long straggling hair, the high cravat, the eye-glass, bows, jags, and tags, to the infinite amusement of some members of the audience, who could not imagine what his quaint dress meant.  Coghlan’s clothes were not more perfect than his manner, but both were a little in advance of the appreciation of Bristol playgoers in the ’sixties.