B I0 GRAPH I C AL SI< ET CHES. 165
he meant to have the pleasure of drinking tea with her that evening. The lady,
resolving to do honour to her guest, ordered her servant to place her hest set
of china on the table, and to wheel it up opposite her nest. Mr. Wood made his
appearance at the appointed hour, and having, with all due gravity, partaken of
a dish of tea, he suddenly laid hold of a portion of the favourite tea-equipage,
rushed towards the window, which he opened, and seemed about to throw the
whole into the street. hlrs. * * *, alarmed at the insane-like proceeding of her
guest, flew to save the valuable china, when hlr. Wood, seizing the opportunity,
herried the nest, and broke all the eggs. By this stratagem the whim of his
patient was effectually put to flight.
At her
first visit to Edinburgh, many were the fainting and hysterical fits among the
fairer portion of the audience. Indeed they were so common, that to be supposed
to have escaped might almost have argued a want of proper feeling.
One night when the house had been thrown into confusion by repeated scenes
of this kind, and when Mr. Wood was most reluctantly gett,ing from the pit
(the favourite resort of all the theatrical critics of that day) to attend some
fashionable female, a friend said to him in passing, “ This is glorious acting,
Sandy,” alluding to Mrs. Siddons ; to which hlr. Wood answered, “ Yes, and
a d-d deal o’t too,” looking round at the fainting and screaming ladies in
the boxes.
When routs were first introduced in Edinburgh, they were very formal
affairs, being in no way congenial to the manners or temper of the people. At
one of the first that had been given by a person of distinction, the guests were
painfully wearing away the time, stiffly ranged in rows along the sides of the
room, and looking at each other, the very pictures of dulness and ennui, when
bfr. Wood was announced, who, casting his eyes round him, proceeded up the
empty space in the middle of the drawing-room, and then addressed the lady
of the house, saying, “Well, my lady, will ye just tell me what we are all
brought here to doI”-an enquiry which every one felt to be so perfectly
appropriate that it was followed by a hearty laugh, which had the effect of
breaking up the formality of the party, and producing general hilarity and
cheerfulness for the rest of the evening.
If Mr. Wood‘s kindness of disposition widely diffused itself towards his
fellow creatures, young and old, he was almost equally remarkable for his love of
animals, Not to mention dogs and
cats, there were two others that individually were better known to the citizens
of Edinburgh-a sheep and a raven, the latter of which is alluded to by Sir
Walter Scott, in the quotation which has been given from Guy Mannering.
Willy the sheep, pastured in the ground adjoining to the Excise Office, now the
Royal Bank, and might be daily seen standing at the railings, watching Mr.
Wood’s passing to or from his house in York Place, when Willy used to poke
his head into his coat-pocket, which was always filled with supplies for his
favourite, and would then trot along after him through the town, and sometimes
Mr. Wood was an enthusiastic admirer of the great Mrs. Siddons.
His pets were numerous, and of all kinds.
