axing stories of Theodore Hook are numberless. Hoaxing was the
fashion of the day, and a childish fashion too. Charles Mathews, whose
face possessed the flexibility of an acrobat's body, and who could
assume any character or disguise on the shortest notice, was his great
confederate in these plots. The banks of the Thames were their great
resort. At one point there was Mathews talking gibberish in a disguise
intended to represent the Spanish Ambassador, and actually deceiving the
Woolwich authorities by his clever impersonation. At another, there was
Hook landing uninvited with his friends upon the well-known,
sleek-looking lawn of a testy little gentleman, drawing out a note-book
and talking so authoritatively about the survey for a canal, to be
undertaken by Government, that the owner of the lawn becomes frightened,
and in his anxiety attempts to conciliate the mighty self-made official
by the offer of dinner--of course accepted.

[Illustration: THEODORE HOOK'S ENGINEERING FROLIC.]

Then the _Arcades ambo_ show off their jesting tricks at Croydon fair, a
most suitable place for them. On one occasion Hook personates a madman,
accusing Mathews, 'his brother,' of keeping him out of his rights and in
his custody. The whole fair collects around them, and begins to
sympathise with Hook, who begs them to aid in his escape from his
'brother.' A sham escape and sham capture take place, and the party
adjourn to the inn, where Mathews, who had been taken by surprise by the
new part suddenly played by his confederate, seized upon a hearse, which
drew up before the inn, on its return from a funeral, persuaded the
company to bind the 'madman,' who was now becoming furious, and who
would have deposited him in the gloomy vehicle, if he had not succeeded
in snapping his fetters, and so escaped. In short, they were two boys,
with the sole difference, that they had sufficient talent and experience
of the world to maintain admirably the parts they assumed.

But a far more famous and more admirable talent in Theodore than that of
deception was that of improvising. The art of improvising belongs to
Italy and the Tyrol. The wonderful gift of ready verse to express
satire, and ridicule, seems, as a rule, to be confined to the
inhabitants of those two lands. Others are, indeed, scattered over the
world, who possess this gift, but very sparsely. Theodore Hook stands
almost alone in this country as an improviser. Yet to judge of such of
his v