350 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
. of the greatest hits in the annals of the Theatre
Royal; and it was announced in the following
day?s advertisements that the success had been so
triumphant that it would be repeated ?every
evening till further notice;? yet it ran only fortyone
nights consecutively, which seems trifling when
compared with the run of many pieces in London.
But the national element delighted the people ;
Mr. Homerton?s dignified Rob Roy, Mrs. Renaud?s
tragic dignity as Helen Macgregor (always an unattractive
part), Duff?s Dougal Cratur, Murray?s
Captain Thornton, and more than all, the Bailie
Jarvie of old Mackay (who now rests in the Calton
burying-ground) were loudly extolled. Sir Walter
Scott was in the boxes with his whole family,
and his loud laugh was heard from time to time,
and he ever after declared that the Bailie was
a complete realisation of his own conception of
the character. All the Waverley dramas, as they
were named, followed in quick succession; the
Scottish feeling of the plays, and the music that
went with them, completed their success ; the
treasury was filled well-nigh to overflowing, and
Mrs. Henry Siddons had no more difficulties with
her patent or lease.
When George IV. visited Edinburgh in August,
$822, he ordered Rob Roy to be played at this
house on the 27th, and scenes such as it had never
presented before were exhibited both within and
witbout the edifice. At an early hour in the
morning vast crowds assembled at every door, and
the rain which fell in torrents till six in the evening
had no effect in diminishing their numbers, and
when the doors were slowly opened, the rush for a
moment was so tremendous that most serious ap
prehensions were entertained, but no lives were
lost ; while the boxes had been let in such a way
as to preclude all reasonable ground of complaint.
In the pit and galleries the audience were so
closely packed, that it would have been difficult,
according to eye-witnesses, to introduce even the
point of a sabre between any two. All the wealth,
rank, and beauty of Scotland, filled the boxes, and
the waving of tartan plaids and plumed bonnets
produced hurricanes of acclamation long before the
arrival of the king, who occupied a species of
throne in the centre box, and behind him stood
the Marquis of Montrose, the Earl of Fife, and
other nobles. He wore the uniform of a marshal,
and at his entrance nearly the entire audience
joined the orchestra in the national anthem.
On this night Mr. Calcraft (long a Dublin
manager, and formerly an officer of cavalry) played
Rob Roy, and Mrs. Henry Siddons was Diana
Vernon; but the king was observed to applaud
the faithful Dougal as much as any of the others.
Up to 1851 Rub Roy had been acted about four
hundred times in this house; but at Perth, in
1829, it was represented by Ryder?s company for
five hundred nights ! One of the original cast of
the play was ? Old Miss Nicol,? as she was named
in latter years, who then took the part of the girl
Mattie.
To attempt to enumerate all the stars who came
in quick succession to the boards of the old Royal
(as the facilities for travel by land and sea increased)
would be a vain task, but the names of a
few may suffice. Between 1820 and 1830 there
were Vandenhoff, for tragedy, as Sir Giles Overreach,
and Sir William Wallace in the Battle of
Falkirk, &c. ; Jones for Mercutio and Charles
Surface ; the bulky Denham with his thick voice to
play JamesVI. to Murray?s Jingling Geordie; Mason
and Stanley, both excellent in comedy, though
well-nigh forgotten now; and always, of course,
Mrs. Henry Siddons, ?(beautiful and graceful, with
a voice which seemed to penetrate the audience ; ?
and there were Mrs. Renaud for tragedy, Mrs.
Nicol as a leading old lady, Miss Paton, and Miss
Noel with her Scottish melodies ; while the scenery
amid which they moved came from the master-hand
of David Roberts, ?and the orchestra included
hautbois of Mr. T. Fraser, which had witched the
soul and flooded the eyes of Burns.? Among
other favourites was Miss M. Tree (sister of Ellen
the ftiture Mrs. Charles Kean), who used to delight
the playgoers with her Rosina in the Barber d
SmiZZe, or the Maid of Milan, till she retired in
1825, on her mamage with Mr. Bradshaw, some
time M.P. for Canterbury.
Terry, Sinclair, and Russell, were among the
stars in those days. The last took such characters
as Sir Giles Overreach. On his re-appearance
in 1823, after several years? absence, ?to
our surprise,? says the Edinburgh Adverfiser, ?the
audience was thin, but among them we noticed
Sir Walter Scott? Thither came also Maria Foote
(afterwards Countess of Harrington), who took
with success such parts as Rosalind, Imogen, and
Beatrice.
The Edinburgh Theatrical Fund, for the relief
of decayed actors, was instituted at this prosperous
time, and at its first dinner in February, 1827,
under the presidency of Lord Meadowbank, Sir
Walter Scott, ever the player?s friend, avowed
himself, as most readers know, the author of the
? Waverley Novels.? Though it had been shrewdly
suspected by many before, ?(the rapturous feeling
of the company, on hearing the momentous Secret
let for@ from his own lips,? says a writer, ? no one
