as confined in a strait waistcoat in
his father's house for some time."

From engagements at Drury Lane, Sadler's Wells, the Pavilion and the
Surrey Theatre in turn, he was dismissed, finally "Falling into the
lowest state of wretchedness and poverty. His dress had fallen to rags,
his feet were thrust into two worn-out slippers, his face was pale with
disease, and squalid with dirt and want, and he was steeped in
degradation." This unhappy life came to a final close in a public-house
in Pitt Street, off the Tottenham Court Road.

Signor Pietro Bologna, a country-man and friend of Giuseppe Grimaldi,
Joe Grimaldi's father, brought with him from Genoa his wife, two sons
and a daughter. They were all Mimes, and, in a Pantomime produced in
1795, entitled, "The Magic Feast," Signor Bologna was Clown, and his
son, "Jack" Bologna, was Harlequin; the latter being also Harlequin to
Grimaldi's Clown, both at Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells. "Jack"
Bologna married a sister of Mary Bristow, Joe Grimaldi's second wife,
and the mother of poor young Joe.

Tom Ellar was another famous Harlequin, first making his appearance at
the Royalty, Goodman's Fields, in 1808. For several seasons he played
Harlequin at Covent Garden.

Many years ago penny portraits of Mr. Ellar "In his favourite character
of Harlequin," were published by a Mr. Skelt, or a Mr. Park, of Long
Lane, Smithfield, and were the delight of those, who, if living now, are
old and gray.

Tom Ellar died April 8, 1842, aged 62. Previous to his death he must
have fallen upon evil days, as Thackeray, in 1840, wrote: "Tom, who
comes bounding home from school, has the doctor's account in his trunk,
and his father goes to sleep at the Pantomime to which he takes him.
_Pater infelix_, you too, have laughed at Clown, and the magic wand of
spangled Harlequin: what delightful enchantment did it wave round you in
the golden days 'when George the Third was King?' But our Clown lies in
his grave; and our Harlequin Ellar, prince of many of our enchanted
islands, was he not at Bow Street the other day, in his dirty, faded,
tattered motley--seized as a law breaker for acting at a penny theatre,
after having well nigh starved in the streets, where nobody would listen
to his old guitar? No one gave a shilling to bless him: not one of us
who owe him so much!"

Another Pantomime family were the Ridgways. Tom Ridgway was Clown under
Madame Vestris's management at Covent Garden.

There hav