rick's funeral, which moved in ostentatious display, attended by all that was dignified, in rank, wealth, and literature, from his residence in the Adelphi to Westminster Abbey, Dr. Johnson rode in the same coach with Sir William Jones, to whom, and the rest of his companions, he talked in'cessantly, as was his wont, his theme being an uninterrupted eulogium on the departed actor, both in his private and public capacity. "Garrick," said he, to my knowledge, gave away more money than any man in England, with the same means. He was proud of his profession, and he had a right to be so. Each owed much to the other. His profession made him rich, and he made his profession respectable."

66

Garrick's character was admirably sketched by Goldsmith in "Retaliation," and his prevailing weakness particularly so in these two lines :

"On the stage he was powerful, natural, affecting'Twas only that when he was off he was acting!" There are three biographies of Garrick, independent of notices in dictionaries, annuals, and epistolary correspondence. A life by Davies, published in 1786, reprinted with additional notes in 1808, and considered, for want of a better, the standard authority, although supplied with rather more than the usual average of misstatements. A second by Murphy, in 1801, good-fornothing; and a third by Galt, in his "Lives of the Players," in 1831-a meagre sketch, if possible of less value than that of Murphy. Cooke, in his "Life of Macklin," says, "when Garrick first undertook to play Bayes (which character he made a vehicle for imitations), he proposed to Giffard (the manager) to let him begin with him. Giffard, supposing that Garrick would just glance at him to countenance his mimicry of the rest, consented; but Garrick hit him off so truly, and made him so completely ridiculous, that Gifford, in a rage, sent him a challenge, which Garrick accepted. They met the next morning, when the latter was wounded in the swordarm; the Rehearsal was advertised for the ensuing Saturday, but the duel intervening (which none but the parties and their seconds knew at that time, and very few ever since), the play was put off for a fortnight on ac count of the sudden indisposition of a principal performer. At the end of that interval it came out with imita

tions of some of the other actors, but Giffard was totally omitted." Cooke gives his anecdote without reference to the source from whence he derived it. Some part of it is certainly untrue, and the whole carries internal evidence of improbability. Little David, although petulant and irritable, was no Drawcansir, and would at any time have "explained," rather than betake himself to his tools. Those pestilent witnesses, the playbills of the seasons, are extant to show that the Rehearsal never was put off for a fortnight from the indisposition of a principal performer, nor is it likely that Giffard, whose falling fortunes depended on the attraction of Garrick, would in a moment of pique call out, and disable the young phenomenon who was nightly drawing the fashionable world in crowds to Goodman's Fields, from the larger and until then more frequented houses at the west end. If so, managers were more personally sensitive a century ago than they are now, in this degenerate age; they cannot afford to go through the farce of calling out attractive stars. Garrick's imitation seriously injured Delane, Hale, and Ryan, actors who, until turned into ridicule, had stood high in the estimation of the public. Some years after Garrick gave up this practice, but was keenly alive to its injurious effects, when Foote threatened to give him to the public at second hand at the Haymarket, and Henderson indulged him with his own Benedick at a private breakfast. Imitation of the most perfect kind is a poor and spurious exercise of genius, and has generally prevented those who indulge in it habitually from becoming first-rate actors. It is at best an exaggerated representation of excellence or infirmity. A highly-coloured copy of the sepulchral asthma of John Kemble, the shrill, piercing tone or Cooke, the peculiar mannerism of Macready, or the husky passion of Edmund Kean, may take an audience by surprise, and cause them to laugh or applaud, but the represented caricature is injurious to the dignity of art, and scarcely less sacrilegious than a travesty of Shakspeare's noblest dramas.

He

Davies, the first biographer of Garrick, was a bookseller, with some slender pretensions to scholarship. was also an actor in Garrick's company, belonging to the numerous species consigned as respectable-a class

who weary the public, without exciting or satisfying them, and might have been included in Horace's anathema against tolerable poets, as not to be permitted by gods, men, or newspapers:—

"Mediocribus esse poetis (vel actoribus) Non homines, non Dii, non concessere columnæ."

Davies, in evil hour, took up the additional trade of politics, with which an actor has no more occasion to meddle than a highlander with a knee-buckle; and this drew on him the vengeance of Churchill, who perpetuated his insignificance as an actor in this pungent couplet of the Rosciad :—

Next came Tom Davies-and, upon my life, That Davies hath a very pretty wife." Even as Theodore Hook extinguished poor Alexander Lee in one of his afterdinner improvisations, when characterising by some peculiarity the whole company :

"As to that gentleman there

My memory cannot carry more,
Only to say, that he sits

Next to the Earl of Barrymore."

Davies' "Life" is little more than a dull register a mere record of performances unenlivened by striking incident or adventure. The most interesting portion is the appendix, which contains a copy of Garrick's will, and a list of the characters in which he appeared. Much might be written now, touching the great actor, his contemporaries, and the stage during the thirty years that he held the dramatic truncheon of command; but such a voluminous compilation would assuredly not pay, and would prove caviare to the million. Theatrical biographies are usually dull and monotonous, especially those of Frederick Reynolds and George Colman, which might have been expected to overflow with fun and anecdote. Actors, particularly the comic ones, are not remarkable (with some few exceptions) for conversational brilliancy. Their lives are generally barren of incident, passed in an unvarying routine; almost entirely engrossed between rehearsal in the morning, and performing at night. Their talk is too exclusively professional to be generally edifying or entertaining, and their campaigns

are not much more eventful than the

marchings and countermarchings of Major Sturgeon from Ealing to Acton, and from Acton to Ealing back again. Their vanity is also as peculiar as it is harmless. They fancy the world is incessantly occupied with them and their doings that their most trifling proceedings are watched with intense anxiety, and that the planet sometimes actually pauses on its axis in wonder at their importance. I think it was Baron, the great French tragedian, who said, a tragic actor "ought to be born among princes, and nursed on the laps of queens." Of him the following grand hyperbole is gravely recorded. In pronouncing the two lines

"Et dans le même moment par une action severe, Je l'ai vu rougir de honte, et pallir de colère,"

his panegyrist tells us that as he uttered the two words rougir and pallir his face alternately grew red and white. This was suiting "the action to the word" to an extent that Shakspeare never dreamed of a muscular trickery quite impossible, and utterly absurd if it could be contrived. It may stand side by side with the still higher flight of a celebrated modern theatrical critict, who, in a well-known essay, mentions, that Garrick so studiously copied nature, that he acted King Lear on crutches, but threw them away to give more complete effect to the great scene. Where on earth did the ingenious essayest find his authority for this extravagance? Garrick used a stick in acting Lear, such as is carried to this day by Shylock, and Sir Giles Overreach, and other elderly characters, and for which Edmund Kean, and afterwards Macready, substituted a Saxon sceptre, or hunting spear. When he came to the curse, which I suppose is what is implied by the great scene, he dashed down this stick, with his cap, and clasped his hands convulsively together, as he fell on his knees in the agony of passion. Henderson, John Kemble, and Young, who followed in succession, adopted the same stage business, as it is technically called, and which appears to have descended lineally from Garrick.

Garrick's life, on the whole, must

† Alison.

have been exceedingly agreeable. He suffered much in his latter days from painful infirmities, and his retirement in affluence and credit was cut short by the hand of death in three years, and at by no means an advanced age. He began to accumulate a fortune at an early period, and it went on continually increasing. His favour with the public never declined; and though he was always in dread of a rival, none ever shook his acknowledged supremacy. His labour was comparatively light, and his performances far less numerous than the drudgery of the modern stage imposes on a leading actor. He made two professional visits to Dublin before he became manager of Drury-lane; but, with the exception of the Irish metropolis, after his fame was once established, he never appeared in any theatre out of London. was happy in his domestic life, although not blessed with children. He had enemies, and detractors, and waspish critics, who annoyed him more than he should have permitted. Macklin both spoke and wrote of him disparagingly. Tate Wilkinson records a specimen of his colloquial conversation, too coarse and vulgar for the pages of an otherwise respectable book; and Kenrick, whose hand, like Ishmael's, was against everybody, provoked him by groundless insinuations, which were unworthy of notice. He had one or two riots in the theatre during a management of twenty-eight years, and sundry squabbles with the Clive and the Cib

He

ber. But his term of existence was nearly all sunshine, darkened only by passing clouds. Few professional men have been so uniformly fortunate. That he deserved his good fortune is equally certain. With many trifling faults, such as vanity, and love of adulation, inseparable from his position, Garrick was a good and charitable man, a firm friend, and, by no means, an implacable enemy. As an actor, he stands unrivalled from his commanding versatility. Others may have equalled or exceeded him in particular characters or passages, but his range was more extensive than that of any individual who either went before or came after him. He originated a school which had many accomplished disciples. He was, perhaps, greater even in comedy than in tragedy; but of the two grand divisions of the dramatic art, it is easier to obtain a high degree in the College of Thalia than in that of Melpomene. In a severe classification of merit, Apollo might decide that the annals of the British stage present but three names which are entitled to stand in the very foremost rank as founders of schools, heirs of genius, and illustrators of Shakspeare-David Garrick, John Kemble, and Edmund Kean. Others have preceded and followed, haud passibus inæquis, who are worthy to stand beside them in a procession to the temple of fame; but we shall scarcely be accused of undue partiality, or an error in judgment, in according to these three niches of pre-eminence.

2 G

VOL. XXXIX.-NO. CCXXXII.

Of all the islands that strew the Irish coast, perhaps none is more interesting in itself, and less generally known, than the subject of this paper.

On the shores of the wild, but beautiful county of Donegal, is the little town of the Cross-roads, and close by it is the bay of Ballyness, an inlet of the Atlantic, that communicates with Tory Sound, by which the island is washed on the south. The latter is distant about three leagues from the main, and lies to the north-west of the bay; the smaller ones of Inisbofin, Inisdoey, and Inisbeg, being introduetory to it. There is also a "Packet" on the station; not a steam- packet, however, nor anything of the sort either, for Tory has not advanced so far as yet; but a good sailing boat, that serves its Lighthouse when circumstances require, and the weather permits.

Here, therefore, is the best chance of a passage, should you venture upon a visit to the island: but remember, you have only a chance; since such is the fury with which the tide generally runs, and so violent are the gales, in the intermediate Sound, you may be prevented crossing for days together, or be delayed at Tory just as often, and quite as long. One person whom I met had been detained at the Crossroads for a fortnight at a time, and was nearly drowned in the end; while a worthy Doctor and reverend Priest were held in durance by contrary winds, from the morning before, to that succeeding my arrival, when they insisted upon setting out and making direct for the land; but their boat was driven from its course, and beaten about for hours, till at last they reached the shore drenched to the skin, and numbed with cold; the Doctor protesting Tory must have been the last

.

place which God made; and his Reverence holding it could not, for the future, belong to his parish at least.

On the morning of the 22nd August, 1819, I found myself on the little quay at Ballyness, awaiting the equipment of the "Packet," for a run to the island. This had been previously arranged, should matters promise well; and now the owner and his men were preparing for the trip, shipping the proper ballast, and loosening the sheets; for the sky was clear, the clouds firm, and the breeze favourable. Soon, therefore, were we under sail; and as the boat went bounding on, the harbour faded away, the mountains rose behind, and Inisbofin was on our left, a considerable island, well cultivated, and supporting some twenty families; then Inisdoey, which is smaller, but also cultivated, and inhabited by two brothers; followed by Inisbeg, which is the least of the three, and used for grazing only. But scarce had the first of these been passed, when we entered upon a region of big, and swelling waves, that formed at our very side, or came rolling on in curving lines; the boat now rising into the air, as they heaved it up; now sinking deep, as they glided from below. And as we approached what is called the "point of Tory," the canvas filled to the uttermost, and the masts bent to the wind like rods; the sea threw itself into wilder heaps, and frequently excluded every trace of the Bloody Foreland-ay, of Erigal itself. ever, we reached our destination in about an hour and a-half. It was full tide at the time, and we ran ashore at the usual landing, which is close by the Round Tower.

How

Our voyage being accomplished, let me speak of Tory itself, with all its wonders; and first as to its name, för what is an Irish island without a name,

about which the Antiquarians will never agree. Accordingly, in the preface to the twelfth number of that famous tome, Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, General Vallancey affirms-"The Hebrew and Chaldee Tur, was a circular building, a tower, from the origin of languages;" and he requests us to observe the ancient history of the Irish in this respect. African sea-champions landed in Ireland, conquered the country, introduced their language, and taught the inhabitants to build with lime and stone;'-" to build what?" [Listen, ye logicians]—"round towers undoubtedly, for no other buildings were erected in Ireland of lime and stone for many centuries afterwards." Again, we are given to understand "The ancient Irish Seanchas say, that Gan, Geanan, Conuing, and Taovar were African generals, who drove the Nemedians out of Ireland; that they first settled at Toirinis, which was called Tor-Conuing, from the tower he built there: this is the first Round Tower mentioned in Irish his tory." Thus, reader, if the learned Vallancey be correct, not merely may the blood of the Hannibals be flowing in your own veins, but the Round Tower at Tory was the work of brother Conning himself. Heaven forbid, however, that we should be bound by the authority of any one Antiquarian; the point is a nice one, and we must also consult the accomplished author of "The Ecclesiastical History of Ireland," although he should slaughter both the sea-champions and the General, with our old chroniclers to boot.

What, then, does Doctor Petrie say of the statements which Vallancey has thus attributed to our annalists, as to their fathers having been taught by the Fomorians to build with lime and stone, and the deduction sought to be drawn? This "they make no such statement;" and "the story of TorConuing, or Tory island, appears to be a legend originating in the natural formation of the island, which presents at a distance the appearance of a number of towers; and hence, in the authentic Irish annals, and the lives of Columbkille, the patron saint of the place, it is called Torach, or the towery island, and Latinised Torachia, and Toracha insula. It is true, indeed, there is a Round Tower still remain. ing in Tory Island; but it would require a more than ordinary share of

;

credulity, to enable one to believe that is the Tor-Conuing of the Africans or that its age is anterior to that of St. Columb, to whom its erection is attributed by the common tradition of the islanders, and the inhabitants of the opposite coasts." So that, according to the Doctor, Tory has its style neither from the Hebrew nor the Chaldee, but from its fancied resemblance to a number of towers; and its RoundTower is claimed as the work of the Christian St. Columb, and not of the heathen Conuing.

But while the ashes of the Seanchas, the General, and the dead languages are thus disposed of, I must confess, when seen from a distance, the island has always presented to my mind the idea of a mailed warrior, stretched at full length on his back; the lower part of his vizor off, his breastplate rising suddenly from the neck, and falling towards his knees. It may be said, however, even this account of its formation is not inconsistent with the title of Torach; but it is rather strange that tradition, similar to that alluded to, should also refer its name to a very different source. In other words, both the islanders and the people of the adjacent coast will tell you-in olden times there lived a certain king of Danish descent, called Bonnor, or Balor, who was the last chief of his race banished from our Northern main; and having an only daughter of whom he was most careful, he considered Tory a discreet refuge, chose it for his abode, and termed it in Irish Tor a Riogh, which means, the King's pinnacle, bush, or hiding-place. And if this be so, the Torach doctrine should yield to the royal exile, and the latter win the day.

The island is the property of Mr. Woodhouse of Portadown. Its extreme length from east to west, or rather from south-east to north-west, is about a league; and its width three quarters of a mile. It contains upwards of 700 acres of arable, pastureground, and waste; including what is covered by the loughs Ahoey, Ayes, and Aher. Huge rocks and castellated cliffs line the shores to the north, north-west, and north-cast; their height above the sea ranges from 80 to 280 feet; and the endless dash of the Atlantic has hewn them asunder at a hundred points. But from these eminences, the land descends with a gentle