Mr. Kemble himself has done me the honour to
commend it. Our kind friend Lord Wrotham was for having the piece
published by subscription, and sent me a bank-note, with a request that
I would let him have a hundred copies for his friends; but I was always
averse to that method of levying money, and, preferring my poverty sine
dote, locked up my manuscript, with my poor girl's verses inserted at
the first page. I know not why the piece should have given such offence
at court, except for the fact that an actor who had run off with an
earl's daughter, performed a principal part in the play; but I was told
that sentiments which I had put into the mouths of some of the Indian
characters (who were made to declaim against ambition, the British
desire of rule, and so forth), were pronounced dangerous and
unconstitutional; so that the little hope of royal favour, which I might
have had, was quite taken away from me.

What was to be done? A few months after the failure of the tragedy, as
I counted up the remains of my fortune (the calculation was not long or
difficult), I came to the conclusion that I must beat a retreat out
of my pretty apartments in Bloomsbury, and so gave warning to our good
landlady, informing her that my wife's health required that we should
have lodgings in the country. But we went no farther than Lambeth, our
faithful Gumbo and Molly following us; and here, though as poor as might
be, we were waited on by a maid and a lackey in livery, like any folks
of condition. You may be sure kind relatives cried out against our
extravagance; indeed, are they not the people who find our faults out
for us, and proclaim them to the rest of the world?

Returning home from London one day, whither I had been on a visit to
some booksellers, I recognised the family arms and livery on a grand
gilt chariot which stood before a public-house near to our lodgings. A
few loitering inhabitants were gathered round the splendid vehicle, and
looking with awe at the footmen, resplendent in the sun, and quaffing
blazing pots of beer. I found my Lady Castlewood seated opposite to
my wife in our little apartment (whence we had a very bright, pleasant
prospect of the river, covered with barges and wherries, and the ancient
towers and trees of the Archbishop's palace and gardens), and Mrs. Theo,
who has a very droll way of describing persons and scenes, narrated to
me all the particulars of her ladyship's conversation, when she took her
leav