"He and another neighbour of mine, one Mr. S. Johnson, set out this morning for London together. Davy Garrick is to be with you early the next week, and Mr. Johnson, to try his fate with a tragedy, and to see to get himself employed in some translation, either from the Latin or the French. Johnson is a very good scholar and poet, and I have great hopes will turn out a fine tragedy writer. If it should any ways lay in your way, I doubt not but you would be ready to recommend and assist your countryman.

G. WALMSLEY."

It appears by these letters, that Mr. Walmsley had a very particular regard for Mr. Johnson and David Garrick. The friends of the latter indeed entertained some hopes, that if Mr. Walmsley had continued a single man, young Garrick would have gained, by his means, a settlement for life; but his marrying in an advanced age put an end to these expectations.

Dr. Johnson, in his Biographical and Critical Prefaces, a work which can never be too much read and admired, has, in the life of Edmund Smith, embraced an opportunity to shew his gratitude to the memory of Mr. Walmsley.

The tragedy, mentioned in Mr. Walmsley's letter, was Irene, which was afterwards acted with applause, though not with success adequate to its merit.

CHAPTER II.

Mr. Garrick's arrival in London.....Death of his uncle.....He boards with Mr. Colson.....Death of his father and mother..... Seriously resolved to commence actor..... Introduced to the playhouse managers..... Sets out with the comedians for Ipswich.....His success

there.

ALMOST as soon as Mr. Garrick arrived in London, he was entered of Lincoln's-Inn, March 9, 1736; but his finances would not enable him to put himself under the care of Mr. Colson till the death of his uncle, who, about the year 1737, left Portugal, with an intention to settle in London, in which place he soon after fell sick and died. Some time before his death, his nephew David insinuated to him, that he ought to make him some compensation in his will for the disappointment which he had obliged him to incur by a fruitless voyage to Lisbon. The old gentleman was convinced that the remonstrance was just, and bequeathed to David a larger portion of his effects than to any of his brother's children; for to him he left one thousand pounds, and to the others five hundred pounds each.

With the interest of the one thousand pounds Mr. Garrick prudently embraced the means of acquiring useful knowledge, by the instruction of Mr. Colson. His proficiency, however, in mathematicks and philosophy, was not extensive; his mind was theatrically led, and nothing could divert his thoughts from the study of that to which his genius so powerfully

prompted him. However, in the company of so rational a philosopher as Mr. Colson, he was imperceptibly and gradually improved in the talent of thinking and reasoning; and the example and precepts of so wise a man were not vainly bestowed on a mind so. acute and rational as that of the young boarder.

His father, Capt. Garrick, had been many years upon half pay; but, with a view to the better support of his family, he had embraced an offer to receive the whole emoluments of his post from a brother officer, on condition that he should reside at Gibraltar in his stead. Much about the time when his son David lived with Mr. Colson, the Captain returned to England from that fortress, where he had lived several years. He purposed to sell his commission, from an affectionate and tender motive to procure some permanent subsistence for a wife and seven children; but his health was so shattered, and his constitution so entirely broken, that he was not permitted to accomplish his purpose; and he died very soon after.

There was not much more than the intervention of a year between the death of Mr. Garrick's father and his mother.

Mr. Garrick now found himself free from all restraint, and in a situation to indulge himself in his darling passion for acting, from which nothing but his tenderness for so dear a relation as a mother had hitherto restrained him.

However, during the short interval between his mother's death and his commencing comedian, he

engaged for some time in the wine trade, and was in partnership with his brother, Mr. Peter Garrick; they hired vaults in Durham Yard, for the purpose of carrying on the business. The union between the brothers was of no long date; Peter was calm, sedate, and methodical; David was gay, volatile, impetuous; and, perhaps, not so confined to regularity as his partner could have wished. To prevent the continuance of fruitless and daily altercation, by the interposition of friends, the partnership was dissolved amicably.

And now Mr. Garrick prepared himself in earnest for that employment which he so ardently loved, and in which Nature designed he should so eminently excel.

He was frequently in the company of the most celebrated actors; he got himself introduced to the managers of the theatres, and more particularly to Mr. Fleetwood, by the means of Havard and Woodward. He tried his talent in the recitation of some particular and favourite portions of plays. Now and then he indulged himself in the practice of mimicry, a talent which, however inferiour, is never willingly resigned by him who excels in it. Sometimes he wrote criticisms upon the action and elocution of the players, and published them in the prints. These sudden effusions of his mind generally comprehended judicious observations and shrewd remarks, unmixed with that gross illiberality which often disgraces the instructions of modern stage criticks.

Mr. Garrick's diffidence withheld him from trying his strength at first upon a London theatre; he

thought the hazard was too great, and embraced the advantage of commencing his noviciate in acting with a company of players, then ready to set out for Ipswich, under the direction of Mr. William Giffard and Mr. John Dunstall, in the summer of 1741.

The first effort of his theatrical talents was exerted in Aboan, in the play of Oroonoko, a part in which his features could not easily be discerned ; under the disguise of a black countenance, he hoped to escape being known, should it be his misfortune not to please. Though Aboan is not a first rate character, yet the scenes of pathetick persuasion and affecting distress, in which that character is involved, will always command the attention of the audience, when represented by a judicious actor. Our young player's applause was equal to his most sanguine desires. Under the assumed name of Lyddal, he not only acted a variety of characters in plays, particularly Chamont in the Orphan, Captain Brazen in the Recruiting Officer, and Sir Harry Wildair; but he likewise attempted the active feats of the Harlequin. In every essay he gave such delight to the audience, that they gratified him with constant and loud proofs of their approbation. The town of Ipswich will long boast of having first seen and encouraged so great a genius as Mr. Garrick.