gree of confidence more than I enjoyed at every moment of the time."

To return to the pit for a concluding note or two. Audiences had come
to agree with Hazlitt, that "it was unpleasant to see a play from the
boxes," that the pit was far preferable. Gradually the managers--sound
sleepers as a rule--awakened to this view of the situation, and
proceeded accordingly. They seized upon the best seats in the pit, and
converted them into stalls, charging for admission to these a higher
price than they had ever levied in regard to the boxes. Stalls were
first introduced at the Opera House in the Haymarket in the year 1829.
Dissatisfaction was openly expressed, but although the overture was
hissed--the opera being Rossini's "La Donna del Lago"--no serious
disturbance arose. There had been a decline in the public spirit of
playgoers. The generation that delighted in the great O.P. riot had
pretty well passed away. Such another excitement was not possible;
energy and enthusiasm on such a subject seemed to have been exhausted
for ever by that supreme effort. So the audience paid the increased
price or stayed away from the theatre--for staying away from the
theatre could now be calmly viewed as a reasonable alternative. "The
play" was no more what once it had been, a sort of necessary of life.
The example of the Opera manager was presently followed by all other
theatrical establishments, and high-priced stalls became the rule
everywhere. The pit lost its old influence--was, so to say,
disfranchised. It was as one of the old Cinque Ports which the
departing sea and the ever indrifting sand have left high and dry,
unapproachable by water, a port only in name. It was divided and
conquered. The most applauded toast at the public banquet of the O.P.
rioters--"The ancient and indisputable rights of the pit"--will never
more be proposed.

CHAPTER IX.

THE FOOTMEN'S GALLERY.

Of old the proprietors of theatres acted towards their patrons upon
the principle of "first come, first served." If you desired a good
place at the playhouse it was indispensably necessary to go early and
to be in time: to secure your seat by bodily occupation of it.
Box-offices, at which places might be engaged a fortnight in advance
of the performance, were as yet unknown. The only way, therefore, by
which people of quality and fashion could obtain seats without the
trouble of attending at the opening of the doors for that purpose, was
by sending on the