ing, which sometimes decorated the processions of the stage with flags that waved to his honour; and at others stooped to the more patient toil of executing such likeness as he could give to miniature portrait. We do not recommend this sedentary relaxation, nor indeed any secondary employment to an actor; it by degrees engrosses too much attention for the interest of the principal, and is apt to insinuate itself as a resource in case the original occupation should fail him: this slowly begets a feeling of inconveniences, (and all pursuits have them,) which would never have been felt but for this high-minded accessory-the man becomes pettish and uncomplying; offence is given to those, who will not be offended with impunity; and the disgraced actor is left to his resource, and finds it nothing.

On the 12th of June, Mr. Inchbald had a great dispute with the audience. On the 15th his gentle wife played Shore, and, as they expected, there was a riot on Mr. Inchbald's account. She does not register the particular cause of it; but it was decisive, and the Inchbalds quitted Edinburgh, and closed their engagement with Digges. They felt, it is true, no pressing want: happily too, he had a resource; he had two strings to his bow; and therefore, without hesitation, they determined to pay their long meditated visit to France. Sterne had rendered sentimental journies

delightful; the feeling had only to enter this new field, to be secure of universal sympathy. But, alas!

The trembling feet his guiding steps pursue

In vain ;-such bliss to one alone,

Of all the sons of soul, was known ;

And Heaven and Fancy, kindred powers,

Have now o'erturn'd the inspiring bowers;

Or curtain'd close such scenes from ev'ry future view.

CHAPTER IV.

St. Valleri-Abbeville-Arrive at Paris 28th of July, 1776-Objects of both husband and wife-French declamation-Corneille, Racine - Mrs. Inchbald's abstracts Suddenly quit Paris - In September back to Brighton-Bad circumstances-London-Wilson, Digges-The Inchbalds arrive at Liverpool-Engage with Younger She is well received Commences a friendship with Mrs. Siddons and Miss Farren-Their reverse of fortune-Steam improvement-Baggage by sea in old times-Studies at Liverpool -Manchester-First sees Mr. Kemble-Much unsettled-Northwick-Mode of living at that time-A Catholic doubt-Mr. and Mrs. Siddons at York They go to Birmingham and live en famille Separation-London, Canterbury.

On the 2nd of July, 1776, at two o'clock in the morning, after writing a note to her mother to inform her of what just then she perhaps hardly considered a misfortune, her husband and she quitted Edinburgh, and travelled by land to Shields. There they took shipping on the 7th; and, after a passage of a fortnight, landed at St. Valleri on the 23rd. On the day following they visited Abbeville and all its convents and churches. On the 25th they attended mass, and heard a sermon at the Great Church: there was now no diffi

culty in living as Catholics openly; they needed no toleration; and to be an English Catholic, reconciled in a great degree the people of France to two not very splendid travellers from England. "When a man," says Sterne, "can contest the point by dint of equipage, and carry on all floundering before him, with half a dozen lackeys and a couple of cooks," the mere trifle of his religious creed will be thought a trifle every where but in Turkey; there the insolent carriage of a Christian dog will rouse the most indolent Moslem from the elysium of his opium, with a desire to kick most heartily the audacious misbeliever. The Inchbalds were come to France to fraternise with its arts and its language, and their plan was for the husband to take lessons in painting, and the wife in French, as soon as they were a little settled at Paris. To the Capital therefore they pressed on without delay. They went up the Somme on the 26th to Amiens; and as every body knows that Amiens is in the road to Paris, on the 28th they entered that city, and as usual made acquaintance with some English gentlemen; thus disproving, as all his countrymen invariably do, the assertion of Sterne, that" an Englishman does NOT travel to see Englishmen." On the contrary, as its representative,

"His heart untravell'd fondly turns to home."

He has for the most part little facility in languages,

and none of that prévenance that interests others, and makes the beginning of new friendships look like the accidental renewal of old ones.

We have hinted at one advantage possessed by the Inchbalds--there was another, equally Catholic in Paris-Mrs. Inchbald was a beauty, a bel-esprit, and an actress ; this drew to her hotel an Abbé, who was very entertaining and attentive, and, as a cicerone, of the first order. It was to peruse the great volume of Paris, with a key to its contents; and pass by the common-places, which only occupy the ignorant. She was visited too, assiduously, by a Carmelite friar, who, so far from begging merely for his convent," made her some interesting presents; and the English gentlemen, who had introduced themselves, Mr. Belcour, Mr. Fenwick, and Mr. Power, repeated their calls occasionally.

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Mr. Inchbald, as a subject for his lessons in painting, again began a miniature of his wife; and at one time thought that he might get a living in France as an artist-a supposition hardly excusable at his age, and with his experience of the world. The artists of France have, however, many of them made splendid fortunes in London, upon a mere letter introducing them to Garrick, and really fine talent to justify their pretensions. But Mr. Inchbald, late in life, was at most but inquiring his way into one art, upon being disappointed in another. However they did not neglect the op