ENDID STROLLING.

1847-1852.

Birth of Fifth Son--Theatrical Benefit for
Leigh Hunt--Troubles at Rehearsals--Leigh
Hunt's Account--Receipts and Expenses--Anecdote
of Macready--At Broadstairs--Appearance of Mrs.
Gamp--Fancy for a Jeu-d'esprit--Mrs. Gamp at
the Play--Mrs. Gamp with the
Strollers--Confidences with Mrs. Harris--Leigh
Hunt and Poole--Ticklish Society--Mrs. Gamp's
Cabman--George Cruikshank--Mr. Wilson the
Hair-dresser--In the Sweedlepipes
Line--Fatigues of a Powder Ball--C. D.'s
Moustache and Whiskers--John Leech--Mark
Lemon--Douglas Jerrold--Dudley Costello--Frank
Stone--Augustus Egg--J. F.--Cruikshank's
_Bottle_--Profits of _Dombey_--Design for
Edition of Old Novelists--Street-music at
Broadstairs--Margate Theatre--Public
Meetings--Book Friends--Friendly Reception in
Glasgow--Scott-monument--Purchase of
Shakespeare's House--Amateur
Theatricals--Origin of Guild of Literature and
Art--Travelling Theatre and Scenes--Success of
Comedy and Farce--Troubles of a Manager--Acting
under Difficulties--Scenery overturned--Dinner
at Manchester.

DEVONSHIRE TERRACE remaining still in possession of Sir James Duke, a
house was taken in Chester-place, Regent's-park, where, on the 18th of
April, his fifth son, to whom he gave the name of Sydney Smith
Haldimand, was born.[142] Exactly a month before, we had attended
together the funeral, at Highgate, of his publisher Mr. William Hall,
his old regard for whom had survived the recent temporary cloud, and
with whom he had the association as well of his first success, as of
much kindly intercourse not forgotten at this sad time. Of the summer
months that followed, the greater part was passed by him at Brighton or
Broadstairs; and the chief employment of his leisure, in the intervals
of _Dombey_, was the management of an enterprise originating in the
success of our private play, of which the design was to benefit a great
man of letters.

The purpose and the name had hardly been announced, when, with the
statesmanlike attention to literature and its followers for which Lord
John Russell has been eccentric among English politicians, a civil-list
pension of two hundred a year was granted to Leigh Hunt; but though this
modified our plan so far as to strike out of it performan