To the playgoers of to-day, who are accustomed to the theatres of Shaftesbury Avenue and the Charing Cross Road, and who are even inclined to regard the historic Strand as a decaying home for the players, it may seem strange to think of houses in Holborn and Longacre, but the Queen's was in its brief day very popular, and to mention it conjures up many happy memories. It was there that John L. Toole appeared in some of his best domestic comedy parts, with such actors as Henry Irving, Lionel Brough, Charles Wyndham, John Clayton, and Henrietta Hodson for his comrades; it was there that all London flocked to see Hermann Vezin in F. C. Burnand's convincing drama, "The Turn of the Tide" (founded upon the then deservedly popular novel, "The Morals of Mayfair"), and in W. G. Wills's first ambitious play, "Hinko"; and it was there that Shakespearean students revelled in Samuel Phelps's perfect impersonation of Bottom the Weaver, and George Rignold's striking, nay, almost startling, rendering of Caliban. Alas! for its many memories, the Queen's Theatre is no more, and, instead of stage, footlights, and auditorium, its walls encase the works of a Longacre carriage-building firm. When, on its opening night, Ellen Terry joined this now defunct playhouse, its fortunes were controlled by Alfred Wigan, with Charles Reade--who, as we all know, was one of the greatest literary geniuses of his time--for an ally. I meet young people to-day who tell me they have never read this fine novelist's glorious romance, "The Cloister and the Hearth," and say they "don't think they should like it." I am truly sorry for them. Charles Reade, although his works were greedily snapped up by the publishers, loved the stage, had great faith in his own plays, and took endless trouble over their production. His drama, "The Double Marriage," was taken from his novel, "White Lies" (which had been suggested by a French play from the pen of Auguste Maquet, entitled "Le Chateau de Grantier"), and it was produced at the Queen's on October 24th, 1867. It is said that when a quick critic found out the source of the plot, Charles Reade was very angry, and it seems difficult to believe that so great a man should annex another writer's story without acknowledgment. The cast of "The Double Marriage" was not only a strong but a very interesting one. Ellen Terry and Fanny Addison played the heroines; Alfred Wigan was the hero, Charles Wyndham had an effective part, and in a smaller one Lionel Brough made his _début_ on the London stage.