DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0232
212 TURNS ACTRESS.
payment from her Majesty’s bounty, and not forgetting
former frolics of which I was not yet entirely cured., I
went out in company of a person 1 knew, in male attire ;
after walking some time., it was proposed to take a
tankard of porter, and we went into a public house the
corner of Berwick Street, Oxford Road, while drink-
ing, I was accosted by a Recruiting Seijeant of the 21st
regiment of Light Dragoons, whose name I understood
was Jones, who, thinking from my appearance and con-
versation, 1 was a fit subject for his purpose, used every
endeavour, by praising the life of a horse soldier, of
inveigling me to enlist; finding the attempt fruitless,
and doubting to effect it by persuasion, he had recourse
to artifice, and proposed tossing with me for a pot of
porter, taking a guinea from his pocket and tossing it on
the table, thought I might take it up; but perceiving
the drift of his intention, I gave him to understand, I
was not so easily to be taken in; my friend also joining
me, a dispute was likely to ensue, but instantly leaving
the house, he followed us the distance of several streets,
and seemed very reluctantly to give up the pursuit.
Many professions struck my imagination to take up as
a livelihood, but none appeared more congenial to my
mind than the theatrical line, to which I was ever par-
ticularly' attached: knowing a person belonging to the
Thespian Society, held in Tottenham-coujt-road, I got
introduced to perform a character, and attempted that
of Floranthe, in the Mountaineers, which I got through
with considerable applause; Mr. Talbot, afterwards of
Drury Lane Theatre, performed the part of Octavian,
and Miss Mortimer of Covent Garden Theatre, played
Agnes; I afterwards performed the parts of Adeline, in
the Battle of Hexham ; Lady Helen, in the Children in
the Wood; Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet; Irene, in Barba-
rossa ; Thyra, in Athplston; the Queen, in Richard the
Third ;
payment from her Majesty’s bounty, and not forgetting
former frolics of which I was not yet entirely cured., I
went out in company of a person 1 knew, in male attire ;
after walking some time., it was proposed to take a
tankard of porter, and we went into a public house the
corner of Berwick Street, Oxford Road, while drink-
ing, I was accosted by a Recruiting Seijeant of the 21st
regiment of Light Dragoons, whose name I understood
was Jones, who, thinking from my appearance and con-
versation, 1 was a fit subject for his purpose, used every
endeavour, by praising the life of a horse soldier, of
inveigling me to enlist; finding the attempt fruitless,
and doubting to effect it by persuasion, he had recourse
to artifice, and proposed tossing with me for a pot of
porter, taking a guinea from his pocket and tossing it on
the table, thought I might take it up; but perceiving
the drift of his intention, I gave him to understand, I
was not so easily to be taken in; my friend also joining
me, a dispute was likely to ensue, but instantly leaving
the house, he followed us the distance of several streets,
and seemed very reluctantly to give up the pursuit.
Many professions struck my imagination to take up as
a livelihood, but none appeared more congenial to my
mind than the theatrical line, to which I was ever par-
ticularly' attached: knowing a person belonging to the
Thespian Society, held in Tottenham-coujt-road, I got
introduced to perform a character, and attempted that
of Floranthe, in the Mountaineers, which I got through
with considerable applause; Mr. Talbot, afterwards of
Drury Lane Theatre, performed the part of Octavian,
and Miss Mortimer of Covent Garden Theatre, played
Agnes; I afterwards performed the parts of Adeline, in
the Battle of Hexham ; Lady Helen, in the Children in
the Wood; Juliet, in Romeo and Juliet; Irene, in Barba-
rossa ; Thyra, in Athplston; the Queen, in Richard the
Third ;