their minds to stay and see her. Campbell told them
how annoyed Mrs. Siddons would be at meeting strangers; they were not to be gainsaid:—
When the carriage approached the house, Campbell goes on, I
went out to conduct her over a short pathway on the common, as well
as to prepare her for a sight of the strangers. It was the only time,
during a friendly acquaintance of so many years, that I ever saw a
cloud upon her brow. She received my apology very coldly, And
walked into my house with tragic dignity. At first she kept the
gentlemen of the New World at a transatlantic distance; and they
made the matter worse, as I thought, for a time, by the most extravagant
flattery. But my Columbian friends had more address than I
supposed, and they told her so many interesting anecdotes about their
native stage and the enthusiasm of their countrymen respecting herself
that she grew frank and agreeable, and shook hands with both of
them at parting.
Many were the honours heaped on her during these
last years. She received a formal invitation to visit
the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Her
daughter writes to Miss Wilkinson, expressing their
delight with the visit:—
I over and over wished for you, who would have enjoyed as much
as I did the attention and admiration shown to our Darling. We had
sights to see, colleges and libraries to examine, and at every one of
them there was a principal inhabitant, eager to show and proud to
entertain Mrs. Siddons. In the public library, my mother received
the honour of an address from Professor Clarke, who presented her
with a handsome Bible from the Stereotype press. After which she
read to almost all the members of the University at present there the
trial scene in the Merchant of Venice, and more finely she never did it
in her life. Everyone was, or seemed to be, enchanted and enthusiastic.
After her retirement from the stage, she gave public
readings at the Argyll Rooms in London. The
arrangements were most simple. A reading-desk with
lights, on which lay her book, a quarto volume,
printed in large letters. When her memory failed
her, she assisted her sight by spectacles, which in the