announced the performances
arranged for future evenings, the audience enthusiastically welcoming
her appearance. A measure of her manifold talents was shared by other
members of her family. Her sister, Miss Wakelin, was principal comic
dancer to the theatre, occasional actress, wardrobe keeper, and
professed cook, being, rewarded for her various services by board and
lodging, a salary of L1 11s. 6d. per week, and a benefit in every town
Mrs. Baker visited, with other emoluments by way of perquisites. Two
of Mrs. Baker's daughters were also members of her company, and
divided between them the heroines of tragedy and comedy. One Miss
Baker subsequently became the wife of Mr. Dowton, the actor.

A settled distrust of the Bank of England was one of Mrs. Baker's most
marked peculiarities. At the close of the performance she resigned the
position she had occupied for some five hours as money-taker for pit,
boxes, and gallery, and retired to her chamber, carrying the receipts
of the evening in a large front pocket. This money she added to a
store contained in half-a-dozen large china punch-bowls, ranged upon
the top shelf of an old bureau. For many years she carried her savings
about with her from town to town, sometimes retaining upon her person
gold in rouleaux to a large amount. She is even said to have kept in
her pocket for seven years a note for L200. At length her wealth
became a positive embarrassment to her. She deposited sums in country
banks and in the hands of respectable tradesmen, at three per cent.,
sometimes without receiving any interest whatever, but merely with a
view to the safer custody of her resources. It was with exceeding
difficulty that she was eventually persuaded to become a fundholder.
She handed over her store of gold to her stockbroker with
extraordinary trepidation. It is satisfactory to be assured that at
last she accorded perfect confidence to the Old Lady in Threadneedle
Street, increased her investments from time to time, and learned to
find pleasure in visiting London half-yearly to receive her dividends.

Altogether Mrs. Baker appears to have been a thoroughly estimable
woman, cordially regarded by the considerate members of the theatrical
profession with whom she had dealings. While recording her
eccentricities, and conceding that occasionally her language was more
forcible and idiomatic than tasteful or refined, Dibdin hastens to
add that "she owned an excellent heart, with much of the