FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ABOUT 1885, THE YEAR IN WHICH "OLIVIA" AND
"FAUST" WERE PRODUCED AT THE LYCEUM]
I made valiant efforts to learn to spin before I played Margaret. My
instructor was Mr. Albert Fleming, who, at the suggestion of Ruskin,
had recently revived hand-spinning and hand-weaving in the north of
England. I had always hated that obviously "property" spinning-wheel
in the opera and Margaret's unmarketable thread. My thread always
broke, and at last I had to "fake" my spinning to a certain extent,
but at least I worked my wheel right and gave an impression that I
could spin my pound of thread a day with the best!
[Illustration: _Copyrighted by Window & Grove_