Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/334

324[March 6, 1869] brothers of this family, who were twins. Nicholas and Andrew could only be distinguished by the colour of their doublets and the plumes in their hats. They felt like pain even when apart, and loved to walk, travel, sit, sleep, eat, and drink together, till Providence, sympathising with their friendship, eventually permitted them both to be slain in the same skirmish at Newhaven, in France.

Once more on his flight to Plymouth the crow slackens over Lamerton, because there the father of Rowe, the poet, was rector. Rowe was a vain, handsome man who became under-secretary of state to Queen Anne, and whose vivacity and gaiety rendered him very agreeable to Pope. His Jane Shore was approved by Johnson; his Lady Jane Grey by no one. Mrs. Oldfield, the great actress, pronounced Rowe the best elocutionist she had ever heard. He is said to have been fond of flourishing, at the Cocoa Tree in St. James's-street, a snuff-box set with diamonds that some foreign prince had given him.

And now, leaving the region of the tors, the crow strikes out for Plymouth Sound, where the giant Breakwater spreads its defiant arms like those of a strong swimmer against the waves, and the Eddystone on the distant rock raises its votive beacon.

TO THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN.

THE REPORTS OF A VOLUNTEER COMMISSIONER.

SIX IN NUMBER.

.

present writer read, with much interest, your Lordship's circular, addressed to the managers of the London theatres, and has followed, with equal interest, though with some slight astonishment, the correspondence and remarks that have thereupon ensued. It has been pleasant to him to observe that on both sides of this question there is much, of various degrees of merit, to be said, and that, in especial, the opposite parties in the controversy, which was brought about by your Lordship's excellent (if somewhat timid) advice, assert the whiteness of black and the blackness of white with edifying affability. The manager of a prominent theatre, in recognition of the invitation given in the circular in question, advises your Lordship to take severe measures with the Music Halls, whence, according to the opinion of this gentleman (well entitled to be heard), the mischief originally comes. Certain Music Hall proprietors, on the other hand, write to the papers, accusing the Theatres of all that is improper, vaunting the spotless purity of their own establishments, and challenging contradiction. Similar differences of opinion exist amongst those members of the public at large, who have joined the fray. As between Music Halls and Theatres, the quarrel appears to be merely a revival of an old difficulty between the managers of rival classes of entertainments, and, as such, has little or no real interest for the public. But in the matter really touched upon in your Lordship's remarks, and from which the controversialists have somewhat wandered, the public is gravely interested.

It is said that the managers of Theatres have been, and are gradually more and more drifting into a habit of exhibiting on their stages, improprieties, vitiating to the public taste, and hurtful to the public morals.