the surprise and dismay of my Romeo when I didn't get up; and at
others fighting hard against heavy drowsiness of over-fatigue, lest
I should be fast asleep, if not dead, when it came to my turn to
speak--though I might have depended upon the furious bursting open
of the doors of the vault for my timely waking. Talking over this
with Mrs. Fitzhugh one day she told me a comical incident of the
stage life of her friend, the fascinating Miss Farren. The devotion
of the Earl of Derby to her, which preceded for a long time the
death of Lady Derby, from whom he was separated, and his marriage
to Miss Farren, made him a frequent visitor behind the scenes on
the nights of her performance. One evening, in the famous scene in
Joseph Surface's library in "The School for Scandal," when Lady
Teazle is imprisoned behind the screen, Miss Farren, fatigued with
standing, and chilled with the dreadful draughts of the stage, had
sent for an armchair and her furs, and when this critical moment
arrived, and the screen was overturned, she was revealed, in her
sable muff and tippet, entirely absorbed in an eager conversation
with Lord Derby, who was leaning over the back of her chair.

_Tuesday, 16th, Southampton._--After breakfast walked down to the
city wall, which has remnants of great antiquity they say, as old
as the Danes, one bit being still heroically called "Canute's
Castle."

_Wednesday, August 17th._--Went to the theater, and rehearsed "The
Stranger." On my return found Emily waiting for me, and drove with
her to Bannisters.... In the evening, at the theater, the house was
very good, but I played only so-so, and not at all excellent
well....

_Thursday, August 18th._--While I was practising I came across that
pretty piece of ballad pathos, "The Banks of Allan Water," and sang
myself into sobbing. Luckily I was interrupted by Dall and my
father, who came in with a little girl, poor unfortunate! whose
father had brought her to show how well she deserved an engagement
at Covent Garden. She sat down to the piano at his desire, and
panted through the great cavatina in the "Gazza Ladra." Poor little
thing! I never heard or saw anything that so thoroughly impressed
me with the brutal ignorance of our people; for there is scarcely
an Englishman of that man'