In the Memoranda which she has left me, Mrs. Siddons says nothing of her juvenile days but I remember her telling an anecdote of her infancy, which strongly illustrated her confidence in the efficacy of prayer, or rather of the Prayer Book. One day, her mother had promised to take her out the following, to a pleasure party in the neighbourhood, and she was to wear a new pink dress, which became her exceedingly. But whether the party was to hold and the pink apparel to be worn, was to depend on the weather of to-morrow morning. On going to bed, she took with her her Prayer Book, opened, as she supposed, at the prayer for fine weather, and she fell asleep with the book folded in her little arms. At daybreak she found that she had been holding the prayer for rain to her breast, and that the rain, as if Heaven had taken her at her word, was pelting at the windows. But she went to bed again, with the book opened at the right place, and

she found the mistake quite remedied; for the morning was as pink and beautiful as the dress she was to wear.

I have heard her say that Milton's poetry was the object of her admiration earlier than Shakespeare's, and that when but ten years old she used to pore over "Paradise Lost" for hours together. Some portion Some portion of this Miltonic devotion may have sprung from piety more than taste; for, without disparagement to the bard of Eden be it said, that we are awed into idolatry of him by the sacredness of his subject, before we can appreciate his beauties.

Mrs. Siddons continued devoted to Milton all her life; and she was one of the most judicious critics you could hear discourse of him. No doubt, when she thought, in her latter days, of making "Paradise Lost" more popular by her readings, she miscalculated

even her own powers of recitation. The best reading can do little or nothing for great poetry that is not dramatic; and the Muse of Milton is too proud to borrow a debt from elocution.

I am unable to state the exact date of Mrs. Siddons's first appearance on the stage, but it must have been very early; for the company was offended at her appearance of childhood, and was for some time shaken with uproar. The timid debutante was about to retire, when her mother, with characteristic decision, led her to the front of the stage, and made her repeat the fable of the

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Boys and the Frogs," which not only appeased the audience, but produced thunders of applause. At thirteen, she was the heroine in several English operas, and sang very tolerably. In the "History of Worcester," there is found the copy of a play-bill, dated Feb. 12, 1767, in which Mr. Roger Kemble

announces his company of comedians, as playing at the King's Head, in that city; with a concert of music. The play was "Charles the First," by an actor named Havard, indifferently written, and from its subject ill calculated for the universal sympathy of a British audience.* The characters were thus cast: James, Duke of Richmond, by Mr. Siddons, who was now an actor in Kemble's company; James, Duke of York, by Master John Kemble, who was then about twelve

* Havard undertook the tragedy of "Charles I." at the desire of the manager of the company of Lincoln's Inn Fields, to which he then belonged, in 1737. The manager had probably read of the salutary effects produced on the genius of Euripides by seclusion in his cave, and he was determined to give Havard the same advantage in a garret during the composition of his task. He invited him to his house, took him up to one of its airiest apartments, and there locked him up for so many hours every day, well knowing his desultory habits; nor released him, after he had once turned the clavis tragica, till the unfortunate bard had repeated through the keyhole a certain number of new speeches in the progressive tragedy.

years old. The Young Princess, by Miss Kemble, then approaching to fourteen; Lady Fairfax, by Mrs. Kemble. Singing between the acts, by Mr. Fowler and Miss Kemble. In the April following, Master John Kemble is announced as Philidel, in "King Arthur," and Miss Kemble as Ariel, in "The Tempest."

Her education could not be expected, from her father's circumstances, to be very accomplished; but it included instruction both in vocal and instrumental music. Her father also remarked that she had fine natural powers of elocution, and he wished them to be cultivated by regular tuition. For this purpose, when she was about fifteen, he engaged a stranger to be her reading preceptor, who would have undertaken the office, if Mrs. Kemble had not interposed her veto. This individual was William Combe, recently known as the author of "Doctor Syntax's Adventures." This eccentric being, after mis-spend