Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/258

 was used for amateur theatricals, in which the students of the college figured as the actors. About 1745 the building was surrendered to the city for a city hall. In 1751, "The New Theatre" near the Capitol was built by a company of comedians from New York, and in 1752, the Hallam Company, professional players from the theatre in Goodmanfields, near London, made their appearance in Williamsburg. This was a great event in the Colonial life. It was at this time that Lewis Hallam made his début, at the age of twelve, on the boards. This prince of the theatre, who for a long period had no rival in America, having on this occasion but a single sentence to recite, broke down in the middle, and rushed in tears from the stage.

In 1771, the celebrated Miss Hallam visited Williamsburg. She had "starred" it in Maryland, where all the swains of that Colony had paid her tribute in poetry and where Peale had painted her portrait. An extract from a letter of Colonel Hudson Muse, of Virginia, will recall the glory of her début at "The New Theatre" in Williamsburg.

"In a few days after I got to Virginia I set out to Williamsburg where I was detained for eleven days,