Shortly afterwards they took their leave and returned to Gloucester, where they found the theatre crowded as before. The performances went off as well as possible; and after all was over, Watson presented him with one hundred and ninety-five pounds as his share.
At seven o'clock next morning he was on his road to London, where he arrived that night.
Early on the following morning, he waited upon his friend, Mr. Hughes; and having reminded him that "Cheltenham was a very bad theatrical town, on account of its spas and other amusements, but that still it was possible forty or fifty pounds might be made there," triumphantly exhibited his one hundred and ninety-four pounds.
In the evening he called at Covent Garden, and saw Mr. H. Harris, who informed him that Mr. Dimond, of the Bath and Bristol theatres, wished to engage him for five weeks--that his terms were twenty-five pounds per week, with half a clear benefit at each of the places named; and that if he liked to go, he was at perfect liberty to do so, the proprietors of Covent Garden not needing his services until Christmas. His salary was to be paid, however, just as though he were performing.
Of this liberality he gladly availed himself; and after expressing his gratitude, wrote to Dimond, accepting the proposal. A week after he had returned from Gloucester, he left town for Bath.
[52] The gentleman who made notes of Grimaldi's recollections subjoins a note to the effect, that the gentleman who rang the bell is a personal acquaintance of his, and that he has repeatedly heard him mention the circumstance, which he looks back upon now as an act of thoughtless folly, but which he considered then as the performance of a sacred duty to the public. He was at that time in his nonage, studying (after a manner) the law; he is now, and has long been, editor of a newspaper published in Sussex.
[53] The tragic pantomimic ballet of "Don Juan" was one of the pieces intended for representation, and for which new dresses and properties had to be prepared, without reference to the Old Price Riots, and was played for the first time in the New Theatre on November 20; Scaramouch, by Mr. Grimaldi; Donna Anna, by Miss Bristow. The piece was performed several nights in succession.