342 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
Soon after, Mr. Ross advertised that he found
?? the general voice incline that the boxes and pit
should be an equal price. -4s that is the case, no
more than sixpence will be added to the tickets:
boxes and pit 3s., galleries 2s. and IS. The
manager?s first plan must therefore be in some
degree contracted ; but no pains, care, or expense,
will be spared to open the new theatre on the
14th of November next with as complete a company
as can be got together.?
Arnot, writing of the view of the edifice as seen
from the bridge, truly averred that ?? it produces
the double effect of disgusting spectators by its own
deformity, and obstructing the view of the Register
Office, perhaps the handsomest building in the
nation. ?
Its front was somewhat better, being entirely of
polished ashlar, presenting a gable and moulded
pediment, with three large circular-headed windows,
opening upon a spacious balcony and balustrade,
which crowned the portico. The latter consisted
of six plain Doric pillars with a cornice. This
faced the green slope of Multree?s Hill, on which
the Register House was not built till 1772.
The theatre was opened in December, 1769, at
the total expense of &,ooo, and at the then rates
of admission the house held A140. Its rival in
the Canongate, when the prices were zs 6d., IS. 6d,
and IS., held from A70 to L8o.
The downfall of the bridge was the first difficulty
with which Mr. Ross had to contend, as it cut off
the only tolerable communication with the city j
so there stood the theatre on the lonely slope, no
New Town whatever beside it; only a straggling
house or two at wide intervals ; and the ladies and
.gentlemen obliged to come from the High Street
by the way of Leith Wynd, or by Halkerston?s
Wynd, which, in the slippery nights of winter, had
to be thickly strewn with ashes, for the bearers of
sedan chairs. Moreover, the house was often so
indifferently lighted, that when a box was engaged
by a gentleman he usually sent a pound or so of
additional candles.
Owing to these and other reasons Mr. Ross had
two unsuccessful seasons. U The indifference of
the company which the manager provided,? says
h o t , ?gave little inducement to people at the
expense of such disagreeable access to visit his
theatre; but he loudly exclaimed in his own defence
that good performers were so discouraged by
the fall of. the bridge that they would not engage
with him, and his popularity not being equal to his
merit as an actor, but rather proportioned to his
indolence as a manager, he made but an unsuc-
-cessful campaign. The fact is,? adds knot, and
his remark suits the present hour, ?Edinburgh does
not give encouragement to the stage proportionable
to the populousness of the city.?
Losing heart, Mr. Ross leased the house for three
years to the celebrated Samuel Foote, patentee of
the Haymarket Theatre, at 500 guineas per annum,
and he was the first great theatrical star that
ever appeared on the Edinburgh stage. Cooperating
with Messrs. Woodward and Weston,
and a good company, he opened the house for the
next season, and, after paying the proprietor his
rent, cleared LI,OOO. He opened it on the 17th
of November, 1770, with his own comedy, entitled,
The Commissasary. ?? The audience was numerous
and splendid, and the perfsrmance highly relished.
The plays are regularly continued every Monday,
Wednesday, and Saturday.??
On the 24th of the same month, before Robert
Dundas of Amiston, Lord President of the Court,
and a distinguished audience, he produced his
comedy of The iKirror, in which the characters of
Whitefield and other zealous ministers are held up
to a ridicule amounting almost to blasphemy, particularly
in the case of the former, who figures under
the name of Dr. Squintum. On the following day
Dr. Walker of the High Church, from the pulpit,
made a keen and bitter attack upon Foote ?Lfor the
gross profanation of the theatre on the preceding
evening.? The difficulty of managing two theatres
so far apart as one in London and another in Edinburgh,
induced Foote to think of getting rid of his
lease of the latter, prior to which he had a dispute
with ROSS, requiring legal interference, in which he
had the worst of it. Ross?s agent called on Foote
in London, to receive payment of his bill, adding
that he was about to return to Edinburgh.
?How do you mean to travel?? asked Foote,
with a sneer. ?I suppose, like most of your countrymen,
you will do it in the most economical
manner ??
?Yes,? replied the Scot, putting the cash laughingly
into his pocket; ??I shall travel on foot
(Foote).?
And he left the wit looking doubly rueful and
angry.
Foote conveyed the lease to Messrs. West,
Digges, and Bland, who at its expiry obtained a
renewal of it from Ross for five years, at 500
guineas per annum. They made a good hit at
first, and cleared A1,400 the first season, having
opened with the well-known Mrs. Hartley. Digges
had once been in the army, was a man of good
connections, but a spendthrift. He was an admir-
.
scoff Mnx., ?770.
North Bridge.] THE OLD THEATRE ROYAL. 343
able performer in fashionable comedy, and had
been long a favourite at the Canongate Theatre.
Bland was also well connected ; he had been a
Templar, an ofiicer in the army at Fontenoy, and
in the repulse of the British cavalry by the Highlanders
on Cliftonmoor in 1745. For twenty-three
years he continued to be a prime favourite on
these old boards ; he was the uncle of Mrs. Jordan ;
and Edmund Glover, so long a favourite also in
Edinburgh and Glasgow, was nearly related to him.
In 1774 Foote came from Dublin to perform here
again. ?We hear,? says Ruddiman?s Magazine,
?that he is to perform seven nights, for which he
is to receive A250. The Nabob, Th Bankmyt,
The Maidof Bath, and Pie9 in Pattms, all of which
have been written by our modern Aristophanes, are
the four pieces that will be exhibited.?
In these new hands the theatre became prosperous,
and the grim little enclosure named Shakespeare
Square-sprang up near it; but the west side
was simply the rough rubble wall of the bridge,
terminating in later years, till 1!60, by a kind of
kiosk named ?The Box,? in which papers and
periodicals weie sold. It was simply a place of
lodging-houses, a humble inn or two, like the Red
Lion tavern and oyster shop,
At intervals between 1773 and 1815 Mr. Moss
was a prime favourite at the Royal. One of his
cherished characters was Lovegold in The Miser;
but that in which he never failed to ?bring down
the house ? was Caleb, in He wouZd 6e a Soldier,
especially when in the military costume of the
early part of George 111,?s reign, he sang his song,
? I?m the Dandy 0.?
Donaldson, I in his Recollections,? speaks of
acting for ihe, benefit of poor Moss in 1851, at
Stirling, when he-who had delighted the audience
of the then capital in the Mmchant of Venice-was
an aged cripple, penniless and poor. ?? MOSS,? he
adds, ?? caught the inspiration from the renowned
Macklin, whose yew, by Pope?s acknowledgment,
was unrivalled, even in the days of David Gamck,
and he bequeathed to his protdgge? Moss that conception
which descended to the most original and
extraordinary Shylock of any period-Edmund
Kean.?
? During the management of West Digges most
of the then London stars, save Gamck, appeared in
the old Royal. Among them were Mr. Bellamy,
Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Barfy, Mr. and Mrs. Yates, and,
occasionally, Foote.
Of Mrs. Yates Kaygives an etching in the character
of the Duchess of Braganza, a play by an
obscure author named Henry Crisp. The period
to which his print refers was 1785, when-though
she was well advanced in years, having been borm
in 1729 (in London, but of Scottish parents)-
she was paid at the rate of a hundred guineas per
night by Mr. Jackson. From Mr. Digges she
and her husband received seven hundred guineas
at the end of one season. ?The gentlemen of
the bar and some even of the bench had been
zealous patrons of the drama since the Canongate
days, even to the taking a personal concern
in its affairs. They continued to do this for
many years after this time. Dining being then
an act performed at four o?clock, the aristocracy
were free to give their attendance at half-past six,
and did so in great numbers whenever there wasany
tolerable attraction. So fashionable, indeed,
had the theatre become, that a man of birth and
fashion named Mr. Nicholson Stewart came forward
one night, in the character of Richard III.,
to raise funds for the building of a bridge over the
Carron, at a ford where many lives had been lost.
On this occasion the admission to all parts of the
house was five shillings, and it was crowded by
what the journals of the day tell us was a poZite
audience. The gentleman?s action was allowed to
be just, but his voice too weak.??
In 1781 the theatre passed into the hands of
Mr. John Jackson, author of a rather dull (c History
of the Scottish Stage, with a Narrative of Recent
Theatrical Transactions.? It was published at
Edinburgh in 1793. Like his predecessors in the
management he was a man of good education, and
well connected, and had chosen the stage as the
profession he loved best. In the second year of
his rule Siddons appeared in the full power of her
talent and beauty as Portia, at Drury Lane ; and
Jackson, anxious to secure her for Edinburgh,
hastened to London, and succeeded in inducing
her to make an engagement, then somewhat of an
undertaking when the mode of travel in those days
is considered; and on the zznd of May, 1784, she
made her appearance at the Theatre Royal, when,
as the Edinburgh Week0 Magazine records, ((the
manager took the precaution, after the first night,
to have ar. officer?s guard of soldiers at the principal
door. But several scuffles having ensued, through
the eagerness of the people to get places, and the
soldiers having been rash enough to use their
bayonets, it was thought advisable to withdraw the
guard on the third night, lest any accident had
happened from the pressure of the crowd, who
began to assemble round the doors at eleven in the
forenoon.?
Her part was Belvidera, Jaffier being performed
?Sketch of the Theatre Rod,? 1859.
