Delightful reminiscences are these of GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA'S, told in
his own peculiar rattling-off, running-on,
one-anecdote-down-t'other-come-on style. Of all "people he has met" he
has plenty to say, but _nil nisi bonum_; all writ with a magnum-bonum
pen. Once he was a "Gipsy King, ha! ha!" but, long ago, as he tells
us, he renounced all claims to the throne of Bohemia, abdicated,
retired, and, no more a Rad, has led a Reformed Club life. Who wrote
the burlesque Eugene Aram verses, ending with,--
"And GEORGE AUGUSTUS walked before,
With gyves upon his wrist"?
All the notabilities of his earlier days were mentioned in that poem,
at least so I believe, for does it not belong to a date when the Baron
had not come within measurable distance of his title when he watched
the great guns from afar with awe; when he saw them in the Cyder
Cellars and at Evans's, both of which night resorts he, having been
first taken there by a kindly but injudicious man-about-town,
subsequently patronised on such holidays as were offered to him by the
jovial nights after the Eton and Harrow matches at Lord's, and on the
eve of such a festival as the University Boat Race. The Baron in those
happy days and nights was attired in the costume in which RICHARD
DOYLE has dressed young _Clive Newcome_ when he accompanied his
father, the Colonel, on that ever memorable evening to The Cave of
Harmony, and heard the song that made him so wrathful. There are no
Cyder Cellars, Coal Holes, and Evans's nowadays, which owlish resorts
were strictly restricted to the use of the male sex, young and old.
But even if a kind, considerate legislature does insist on
extinguishing the lights, and turning us out in the streets at 12.30
precisely, are morality and health so very much benefited by the
process? Isn't it cheerful to read of the pleasantly convivial late
hours in the Georgian Augustan Era? The celebrities at home and abroad
that he knew were legion, and I'll be bound (as the Book said) that he
hasn't emptied his memory stores by many a cupboard full. There is one
sentiment which appeals to the Baron's head, heart, and pocket, and
delighteth him hugely--it is GEORGE AUGUSTUS'S righteous denunciation
of "the unjust and iniquitous income-tax." The Baron says ditto to Mr
G. A. S. at p. 310, vol. ii. _Inter alia_, the autobiographist is
correct in saying that MADISON MORTON'S _Box and Cox_ was concocted
from _Une Chambre à Deux Lits_ "and another French farce," of which,
as he doesn't give the name, the Baron will here take the liberty of
mentioning it. It was a farce with music, that is to say a
_comédie-vaudeville en un acte_, written by Messrs. LABICHE and
LEFRANC, and produced at the Palais-Royal in 1846. Its name was
_Frisette_. _Box and Cox_ was produced in 1847 at the Lyceum. Very
little furniture for the English farce was taken from _Une Chambre à
Deux Lits_, but packages of dialogue were handed in to _Box and Cox_
from _Frisette_.