over Satan and fled from the evil place, no doubt shaking the dust from his feet as he left it. An incident of this kind occurred at Cheltenham. Mark Lemon used to speak of it after dinner. He had "stuck" in his part twice through observing the unhappy gentleman, who rushed out while Bardolph was telling the Prince how he had blushed at Falstaff's monstrous devices. The Glasgow audience enjoyed the entertainment; they took every point; and were even demonstrative in their applause. Miss Garland played Dame Quickly with rare tact and spirit, and the gentleman who during the Scotch tour doubled Poins and the Chief Justice, forgot to talk of Falstaff's "hoss," and was as lively and spirited a Poins as he was judicial and dignified in the part of the Chief Justice. It was the result of nervousness more than anything else that made Poins invariably pronounce horse "hoss," and lads "leds." He knew when he

did it, and was duly laughed at behind the curtain, if not in front; it was one of those little verbal peculiarities which often require a great deal of practice and criticism to overcome.

In the evening the directors of the Athenæum waited upon us at the "George" to say a few parting words, and to hand over a cheque representing the financial result of the tour. It was my intention to be quite garrulous about this meeting. I made notes of the rise and progress of the Athenæum; but the length to which these papers have already arrived, induces me to generalise the facts and figures of the committee's report by saying that the Institution is one of the best and most successful in the three kingdoms. The building is worthy of the association, the association is worthy of Glasgow. The enterprise of the committee in the way of lectures and entertainments is shown in their numerous and important engagements. In the case of our

"show," for example, they paid for this luxury fifty pounds a night, I believe, and all the company's expenses. The latter were by no means trifling, and yet the committee made a very handsome profit for the Athenæum. They worked the business details of the engagement admirably. Their bill-posting and advertising generally was masterly in conception and execution. They never made a mistake. They combined, so far as their intercourse with Falstaff went, business capacity with kindly grace and courteous consideration. Upon the occasion of this farewell meeting some of the committee evidently expected Mark Lemon to be funny. There was a complete set of Punch in the "George" book-case, and the editor sat in the shadow of his own familiar volumes. He would surely sparkle and bubble over with wit in presence of such a mirth-provoking library. But Mark Lemon, like many other genial men, could

never be genial to order. He required time for the development of his conversational powers, time and perfect ease. My friends of the Athenæum committee must have been a little disappointed with their guest as a humourist at this last meeting. One of the gentlemen was unfortunate in a remark intended to be instructive and provocative of talk. Just as Falstaff was inspired with the happy thought of a pleasant anecdote, which he had evidently caught wandering in his memory, after a desperate search, a committeeman spoke of the sanitary arrangements of Glasgow. Now Mark Lemon had a hobby. He was a director of a certain company which is becoming celebrated for its manufacture of a patent sanitary arrangement, founded upon a sanitary law of the Israelites. The Glasgow committee-man unwittingly led out Mark Lemon's hobby-horse, and the Editor of Punch mounted the favourite animal on the instant;

mounted it and rode it solemnly through an Israelitish camp, through the Levitical laws, through the government establishments of India; mounted it and trotted it through the camp at Wimbledon, gallopped it over the Sussex meadows, and into the village of Crawley; finally pulling up, tired and sad, at Bedford Street, Strand. That hobby-horse was like a nightmare upon the meeting, which closed solemnly with votes of thanks of the deepest gravity. It is a dangerous thing to plunge into conversation without a knowledge of the hobbies of those whose tongues you desire to loosen. Mark Lemon often laughed afterwards at the Glasgow discussion on sanitary science; but he always referred to the northern city and the Athenæum committee in words of pleasant and happy import.

I find it difficult to get away from Scotland, and yet fear to be tedious. I have numerous suggestive notes lying before me.