sir!  Now your royal highness!’ ’Oh dear, Mrs. Baker, I’ve left my ticket in another coat-pocket!’ ’To be sure you have!  Take your royal highness’s word!  Let his royal highness pass!  His royal highness has left his ticket in his other coat-pocket.’  Great laughter followed, and I believe the rank and fashion of the evening found more entertainment in the lobby than on the stage.”

On the occasion of Grimaldi’s engagement, “for one night only,” it was found necessary to open the doors of the Maidstone Theatre at a very early hour, to relieve the thoroughfare of the dense crowd which had assembled.  The house being quite full, Mrs. Baker locked up the box in which the receipts of the evening had been deposited, and, going round to the stage, directed the performances to be commenced forthwith, remarking, reasonably enough, “that the house could but be full, and being full to the ceiling now, they might just as well begin at once, and have business over so much the sooner.”  Greatly to the satisfaction of the audience, the representation accordingly began without delay, and terminated shortly after nine o’clock.

It should be added that Mrs. Baker had been a dancer in early life, and was long famed for the grace of her carriage and the elegance of her curtsey.  Occasionally she ventured upon the stage dressed in the bonnet and shawl she had worn while receiving money and issuing tickets at the door, and in audible tones announced the performances arranged for future evenings, the audience enthusiastically welcoming her appearance.  A measure of her manifold talents was shared by other members of her family.  Her sister, Miss Wakelin, was principal comic dancer to the theatre, occasional actress, wardrobe keeper, and professed cook, being, rewarded for her various services by board and lodging, a salary of L1 11s. 6d. per week, and a benefit in every town Mrs. Baker visited, with other emoluments by way of perquisites.  Two of Mrs. Baker’s daughters were also members of her company, and divided between them the heroines of tragedy and comedy.  One Miss Baker subsequently became the wife of Mr. Dowton, the actor.

A settled distrust of the Bank of England was one of Mrs. Baker’s most marked peculiarities.  At the close of the performance she resigned the position she had occupied for some five hours as money-taker for pit, boxes, and gallery, and retired to her chamber, carrying the receipts of the evening in a large front pocket.  This money she added to a store contained in half-a-dozen large china punch-bowls, ranged upon the top shelf of an old bureau.  For many years she carried her savings about with her from town to town, sometimes retaining upon her person gold in rouleaux to a large amount.  She is even said to have kept in her pocket for seven years a note for L200.  At length her wealth became a positive embarrassment to her.  She deposited sums in country banks and in the hands of respectable tradesmen, at