because of the absence of competing attractions and other sources of entertainment, the stage was much more than at present an object of general regard.  In Andrew’s “History of British Journalism” it is recorded on the authority of the ledger of Henry Woodfall, the publisher of the Public Advertiser:  “The theatres are a great expense to the papers.  Amongst the items of payment are:  Playhouses, L100.  Drury Lane advertisements, L64 8s. 6d.; Covent Garden ditto, L66 11s.  The papers paid L200 a-year to each theatre for the accounts of new plays, and would reward the messenger with a shilling or half-a-crown who brought them the first copy of a playbill.”  In 1721, the following announcement appeared in the Daily Post:  “The managers of Drury Lane think it proper to give notice that advertisements of their plays, by their authority, are published only in this paper and the Daily Courant, and that the publishers of all other papers who insert advertisements of the same plays, can do it only by some surreptitious intelligence or hearsay, which frequently leads them to commit gross errors, as, mentioning one play for another, falsely representing the parts, &c., to the misinformation of the town, and the great detriment of the said theatre.”  And the Public Advertiser of January 1st, 1765, contains a notice:  “To prevent any mistake in future in advertising the plays and entertainments of Drury Lane Theatre, the managers think it proper to declare that the playbills are inserted by their direction in this paper only.”  It is clear that the science of advertising was but dimly understood at this date.  Even the shopkeepers then paid for the privilege of exhibiting bills in their windows, whereas now they require to be rewarded for all exertions of this kind, by, at any rate, free admissions to the entertainments advertised, if not by a specific payment of money.  The exact date when the managers began to pay instead of receive on the score of their advertisements, is hardly to be ascertained.  Genest, in his laborious “History of the Stage,” says obscurely of the year 1745:  “At this time the plays were advertised at three shillings and sixpence each night or advertisement in the General Advertiser.”  It may be that the adverse systems went on together for some time.  The managers may have paid certain journals for the regular insertion of advertisements, and received payment from less favoured or less influential newspapers for theatrical news or information.

One of Charles Lamb’s most pleasant papers arose from “the casual sight of an old playbill which I picked up the other day; I know not by what chance it was preserved so long.”  It was but two-and-thirty years old, however, and presented the cast of parts in “Twelfth Night” at Old Drury Lane Theatre, destroyed by fire in 1809.  Lamb’s delight in the stage needs not to be again referred to.  “There is something very touching in these old remembrances,” he writes.  “They make