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94 crowded and ill-ventilated theatre, that an epidemic that attacked the town was humorously attributed to this cause, and was called "the Siddons fever." All that was most cultured and intellectual in Edinburgh came to do her homage—Blair, Hume, Beattie, Mackenzie, Home, all attended her performances. She made by her engagement, the share of the house, benefit, and subscription, more than one thousand pounds. And this success was not only among the educated classes, the pit and gallery paid their tribute besides. Campbell tells us how a poor servant-girl with a basket of greens on her arm, one day stopped near her in the High Street, and hearing her speak, said, "Ah, weel do I ken that sweet voice, that made me greet sae sair the streen."

Before she left she was presented with a silver tea-urn, as a mark of "esteem" for superior genius and unrivalled talents. She refers to this visit later in her grandiloquent style. "How shall I express my gratitude for the honours and kindness of my northern friends? for, should I attempt it, I should be thought the very queen of egotists. But never can I forget the private no less than public marks of their gratifying suffrages."