Many distinguished actors have been very fond of playing practical
jokes and perpetrating hoaxes. Young, the tragedian, was one day
driving in a gig with a friend on the outskirts of London. Pulling
up at a turn-pike gate he noticed the name of the toll-collector
written up over the door. Calling to him the woman, the wife of that
functionary, who appeared to be in charge of the gate, he politely
told her that he particularly wished to see Mr. ----, naming the
toll-collector, on a matter of importance. Impressed by Young’s manner,
she promptly sent for her husband, who was working in a neighbouring
field. Hastily washing himself and putting on a clean coat he presented
himself. The actor gravely said: “I paid for a ticket at the last gate,
and was told that it would free me through this one. As I wish to be
scrupulously exact, will you kindly tell me whether such is the case?”
“Why of course it is?” “Can I then pass through without paying?” The
toll-collector’s reply and his vituperation as the travellers passed on
had better, perhaps, be left to the imagination.