tour of 87 readings, beginning at Clifton on the 2nd of
August, ending at Brighton on the 13th of November, and taking in
Ireland and Scotland as well as the principal English cities: to which
were added, in London, three Christmas readings, three in January, with
two in the following month; and, in the provinces in the month of
October, fourteen, beginning at Ipswich and Norwich, taking in Cambridge
and Oxford, and closing with Birmingham and Cheltenham. The series had
comprised altogether 125 Readings when it ended on the 27th of October,
1859; and without the touches of character and interest afforded by his
letters written while thus employed, the picture of the man would not be
complete.

Here was one day's work at the opening which will show something of the
fatigue they involved even at their outset. "On Friday we came from
Shrewsbury to Chester; saw all right for the evening; and then went to
Liverpool. Came back from Liverpool and read at Chester. Left Chester at
11 at night, after the reading, and went to London. Got to Tavistock
House at 5 A.M. on Saturday, left it at a quarter past 10 that morning,
and came down here" (Gadshill: 15th of August 1858).

The "greatest personal affection and respect" had greeted him
everywhere. Nothing could have been "more strongly marked or warmly
expressed;" and the readings had "gone" quite wonderfully. What in this
respect had most impressed him, at the outset of his adventures, was
Exeter. "I think they were the finest audience I ever read to; I don't
think I ever read in some respects so well; and I never beheld anything
like the personal affection which they poured out upon me at the end. I
shall always look back upon it with pleasure." He often lost his voice
in these early days, having still to acquire the art of husbanding it;
and in the trial to recover it would again waste its power. "I think I
sang half the Irish melodies to myself as I walked about, to test it."

An audience of two thousand three hundred people (the largest he had
had) greeted him at Liverpool on his way to Dublin, and, besides the
tickets sold, more than two hundred pounds in money was taken at the
doors. This taxed his business staff a little. "They turned away
hundreds, sold all the books, rolled on the ground of my room knee-deep
in checks, and made a perfect pantomime of the whole thing." (20th of
August.) He had to repeat the reading thrice.[227]

It was the first time he had seen Irelan