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his knees beside her, and began pulling the book to pieces in his eagerness to behold all its contents.

"God of Heaven!" cried the old woman, as among the last lot of sovereigns a strange heart-shaped piece of silver, joined to a silken string, rolled out before her, "it's our own Phil's charm, our own Phil's!" Even as she spoke, the figure of the traveller, very pale, and looking strangely like their long lost son, stood over the guilty pair.

"Oh father, oh mother!" said a hollow voice, "I thought to make you happy. But you are lost to me, lost to me for ever!"

The woman shrieked and fell, the old man never said a word, but closed his eyes; the traveller picked up his coat, and sprung into the open air, and all that night a figure might be seen flying, with almost more than human endurance, to the nearest port.

Some days afterwards a beggar, wandering to the shed behind the chapel for shelter, found the old man sitting cold and rigid on his seat, the woman stretched upon the floor-both dead! On the bed within lay the dead body of the dog, stabbed to the heart; beside the fire the bloody knife, and here and there scattered about the place by the fall of the woman, gold enough to make the beggar rich.

But neither he, nor any one about except the priest, would even touch it.

"It is under a curse," they said; "it is UNDER A CURSE !"

Archer Hade

W

ANDREW DUCROW.

ITH truth it may be asserted that Andrew Ducrow was the originating genius of a particular branch of the "profession," and amongst theatrical biographies his cannot fail to be one of the most interesting. Certainly he stands alone, the Shakspere of the ring. Following in the footsteps of Philip Astley, he far surpassed his predecessor, and obtained for " Astleys" its now historical popularity.

His family was of Flemish extraction, he being the son of Peter von Ducrow, and born at the Nag's Head Inn, Southwark, in 1793. At this time his father was engaged at Astley's Amphitheatre, and he brought the young Andrew up to his own profession, with a training of the greatest strictness. Whilst yet only eighteen years of age he was leading acrobat and equestrian at Astley's, with a salary of ten pounds a week, though in a few years some reason induced him to go over to a rival circus in St. George's Fields. Here it was that Ducrow first showed signs of his great pantomimic powers as the dumb boy Florio in the "Dog of Montarjis." Upon the death of his father, Andrew entered into an engagement with Blondell, travelling through France with the Cirque Olympique. He afterwards joined Franconi at Paris, and on quitting there travelled with an establishment of his own, numbering amongst its members his brother John, an exceedingly clever clown, his sister Amelia, afterwards Mrs. Broadfoot, and his wife, Miss Griffiths. In 1823 he was engaged by Elliston, to bring out the spectacle of the "Conquest of Mexico" at Covent Garden Theatre, and soon afterwards taking Astley's, he commenced the successful rule through which his fame was accomplished. A ring was also established at the Pavilion, Brighton, about the same time, under the auspices, and for the delectation of George IV. In 1836 Mrs. Ducrow died at Newcastle, and in 1838 he married Miss Woolford, one of his equestriennes, by whom he had three children, the eldest of whom, Peter, an officer in the army, was shot in New Zealand.

On the 8th of June, 1840, at the height of his popularity, Astley's was burnt down for the third time. The fire broke out at four o'clock in the morning, and was most probably caused by some sparks settling in the scenery during the last act of "Don Juan," the piece then being played. An amusing incident apropos of this occurred at the inquest upon one of

the servants who was burnt to death. One of the other servants during her examination, commenting upon the fire said, "There was no wonder at such a judgment happening when they played pieces in which all the devils came out of hell," in allusion to the last scene which represented the eternal punishment of the libertine Juan. The greater part of Ducrow's valuable stud was saved, the horses trotting quietly out of the gates when opened to some adjoining livery stables in the Westminster Road, where they were accustomed to go. The losses, however, were heavy, amounting in full to about £30,000, including theatrical appointments, private property, and most of Ducrow's many and costly presents. After the fire he was given "benefits" at all the leading theatres, and the Queen also sent him £200 towards the loss he had sustained. It is a somewhat curious fact that a fortnight previous to the conflagration the old watchman (commonly called "Old Teddy") was pensioned off, it being thought he was getting too old for his duties, and a younger man from the Insurance Office employed instead. The hours which he was supposed to be about the building were from twelve until six a.m., and on the morning of the fire it was found that he invariably left at one o'clock. During the previous winter, whilst the company was away in the country, an alarm of fire was given at Astley's, which, however, proved groundless. This winter also Ducrow's niece, Louise Wood, was burnt to death whilst they were in Liverpool, through her clothes igniting as she sat asleep over the fire.

Medical attendants had always predicted that any great excitement would probably affect Ducrow's mind, which proved indeed the case; and though by no means ruined he imagined that he was, and only lived for a few months in intermittent periods of insanity, dying in the York Road, Lambeth, on the 27th of January, in the following year. He appeared once in public during the previous autumn at the Surrey Theatre, in an entrée and as the "Cockney Sportsman," when a ring was made there for the purpose. The house was crowded to overflowing, but it was found his health would not allow him to take part any more in those performances, of which he had been master.

He was buried at Harrow in an elaborate but untasteful tomb, which had been built for his first wife, his widow putting up the following inscription to his memory:-"Within this tomb, erected by genius for the reception of its own remains, are deposited those of Andrew Ducrow, whose death deprived the arts and sciences of an eminent professor and Jiberal patron, his family of an affectionate husband and father, and the world of an upright man." It may be mentioned that the horses were taken from the hearse, and his remains quietly and orderly dragged to

their last resting-place by some of his many admirers. For Ducrow was generous and charitable in the extreme; though his charity, as is usual in such natures, was often, perhaps, indiscriminate. In business relations he was ever honest and straightforward, and whatever hasty tempers and abuse the members of his company were compelled to submit to, their universal liking and respect for him testified to the justice which their merits always received at his hands. He would be content with nothing half done; his company was well paid, and he made it come up to his standard in everything which he undertook. When the "Tower of London" was brought out at Astley's, the performance of one of the scenes failing to satisfy him on the first night of production, at the rehearsal on the following morning he made the company go through it sixteen times. His temper was most irritable on such occasions, and when not in a good humour during rehearsal he would keep them in terror with the large stage bell, which he would fling across the enormous stage at offending "supers," or indeed anyone else who came under his displeasure.

As for Ducrow's personal appearance it was certainly handsome. In stature he was about the middle height, with light-grey eyes, rich brown curling hair, always worn parted in the centre, and a slight, but perfectly proportioned figure. Of an extremely nervous temperament, his health latterly was but weak, though he was most abstemious in eating and drinking. Of drunkenness he had the greatest abhorrence, and offences of this nature by any of his company were visited most heavily.

In considering Ducrow's public life, it has been perhaps rightly observed, that the ring performances to which he is in a measure indebted for his fame, are now the ordinary feats of every circus, but he has left no successor to the extreme grace by which they were characterised.

He had a keen eye for every little defect which could mar, or every little detail which could add to the excellence of what was being done; and his people were known in the profession as being graceful, carefully trained, and the best "talent" that could be obtained. The first thing through which he made any fame was his trick horse Jack, or "Johnny Lump," which died of old age a day after its master. This would be the horse which was so admirably trained after six months' teaching, as to allow itself to be thrown out of a knacker's cart as if dead in the "High Mettled Racer," a piece depicting the various stages of a horse's life. As an instance of Ducrow's intrepidity in his profession, it may be related that on one occasion two French tight-rope performers refusing to risk their lives in ascending a rope from the back of the stage to the gallery,

he coolly took one of his female apprentices by the hand-it being a double ascent-and in his slippers and dressing gown went up and returned to shame them out of a timidity, which was, nevertheless, excusable. It is a curious fact that while he could only just read and write, he always designed, drew, and painted the dresses, properties, &c., required for any new production.

That Ducrow was a shrewd judge of human character, especially that of a British audience, is fully evidenced by his invariable successes, and the means by which they were obtained. "Cut the dialect and get to the 'osses," was his well-known aphorism, and the secret of the popularity which his spectacular entertainments, always marked by correct taste and finish, received. It was to this good taste he owed his popularity alike with the higher and educated classes as the lower. The late Duke of Wellington was a frequent visitor behind the scenes, when the company was playing the "Battle of Waterloo," which was always a stock and "drawing" piece.

Apart from his business capacity as a caterer for public amusement, it is as a pantomimist that he lays claim to genius. Illiterate and uneducated, he always had an aversion to what he called "cackling," but he remains unequalled in this dumb acting. His famous "Raphael's Dream" stands alone, the first six Egyptian attitudes being unapproachable, and indeed have never been attempted since; and his acting in the parts of the "Dumb boy of Manchester," the "Idiot of Heidleberg," and the "Conscript," has been described as true and affecting in the extreme.

Altogether he was one of those men, of whom history has so many, who make us wonder what the want of education and refinement has lost to the world. Though perhaps in the case of Andrew Ducrow, he would have left a greater name behind him, it could scarcely have been more popular than that which is associated with all that causes the old glory of Astley's to be remembered.

Pigmäld & Corlass

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