Memoirs Of Joseph Grimaldi

66 MEMOIRS OP JOSEFS GMMAIDI.

properly says, " of course" he referred everything, they wan-
dered ahout the whole neighbourhood in search of some house
that would be more suitable to them. Penton-street was the
St. James's of PentonviUe, the Regent's Park of the City-road,
in those days; and here he was fortunate enough to secure the
house No. 37, which was forthwith furnished and fitted up,
agreeably to the taste and direction of Mss Hughes herself.

He had plenty of time to devote to the contemplation of his
expected happiness, and the complete preparation of his new
residence, for Sadler's Wells Theatre was then closed,—the
season terminating at that time at the end of October,—and as
he was never wanted at Drury Lane until Christmas, and not
much then, unless they produced a pantomime, his theatrical
avocations were not of a very heavy or burdensome description.

This year, too, the proprietors of Drury Lane, in pursuance of
a custom to which they had adhered for some years, produced
an expensive pageant instead of a pantomime; an alteration, in
Grimaldi's opinion, very little for the better, if not positively for
the worse. It having been the established custom for many
years to produce a pantomime at Christmas, the public naturally
looked for it; and although such pieces as "Blue Beard,"
"Feudal Times," "Lodoiska," and others of the same class,
undoubtedly drew money to the house, still it is questionable
whether they were so profitable to the treasury as the panto-
mimes at Covent Garden. If we may judge from the result,
they certainly were not, for after several years' trial, during the
whole of which time pantomimes were annually produced at
Covent Garden, the Christmas pantomime was again brought
forward at Drury Lane, to the exclusion of spectacle.

He played in all these pieces, "Blue Beard," and so forth;
yet his parts being of a trifling description, occupied no time in
the getting up, and as he infinitely preferred the company of Miss
Hughes to that of a theatrical audience, he was well pleased.
By lie end of February, the whitewashes, carpenters, uphol- was not required to attend until eleven o'clock at night, bycrept