Memoirs Of Joseph Grimaldi

30

MEMOIES OP JOSEPH GEIMALDI.

Wells theatre, had formed an acquaintance with, and married
Mr, Eobert Fairbrother, of that establishment, and Drury Lane,
upon which Mrs. Bailey, the widow, took Mr. Fairbrother into
partnership as a furrier, in which pursuit, by industry and per-
severance, he became eminently successful.

This circumstance would be scarcely worth mentioning, bxit
that it shows the industry and perseverance of Griraaldi, and
the ease with which, by the exercise of those qualities, a very
young person may overcome all the disadvantages and tempta-
tions incidental to the most precarious walk of a precarious
pursuit, and become a useful and respectable member of society.
He earned many a guinea from Mr. Tail-brother by working at
his trade, and availing himself of his instruction in his leisure
hours; and when he could do nothing in that way, he would go
to Newton-street, and assist his uncle and cousin, the carcase
butchers, for nothing; such was his unconquerable antipathy to
being idle. He does not inform us, whether it required a prac-
tical knowledge of trade, to display that skill and address with
which, in his subsequent prosperity, he would diminish the
joints of his customers asabaker, or increase the weight of their
meat as a butcher, but we hope, for the credit of trade, that his
morals in this respect were wholly imaginary.

These were his moments of occupation, but he contrived to
find moments of amusement besides, which were devoted to
the breeding of pigeons, and collecting of insects, which latter
amusement he pursued with such success, as to form a cabinet
coatatniog no fewer than 4000 specimens of flies, " collected," ho
says, " at the expense of a great deal of time, a great deal of
money, and a great deal of vast and actual labour,"—for all of
whieh, no doubt, the entomologist will deem him sufficiently
rewarded. He appears in old age to have entertained a peculiar
relish for the recollection of these pursuits, and calls to mind a
part of Surrey where there was a very famous fly, and a part of
Kent where there was another famous fly; one of these wasappearance on two slack wires, passing through a hoop, with a