The most fashionable of the houses was Her Majesty’s, where only Italian Opera was performed. Everybody in society was obliged to have a box for the season, for which sums were paid varying with the place in the house and the rank and wealth of the tenant. Thus the old Duke of Gloucester used to pay three hundred guineas for the season. On levée days and drawing-rooms the fashionable world went to the Opera in their Court dresses, feathers, and diamonds, and all--a very moving spectacle. Those who only took a box in order to keep up appearances, and because it was necessary for one in society to have a box, used to sell seats--commonly called bones, because a round numbered bone was the ticket of admission--to their friends; sometimes they let their box for a single night, a month, or the whole season, by means of the agents, so that, except for the honour of it, as the man said when the bottom of his sedan-chair fell out, one might as well have had none at all. The prices of admission to the theatres were very much less than obtain at the present day. At Drury Lane the boxes and stalls, of which there were two or three rows only, were 7_s._ each; the pit was 3_s._ 6_d._, the upper boxes 2_s._, and the gallery 1_s._ At Covent Garden, where they were great at spectacle, with performing animals, the great Bunn being lessee, the prices were lower, the boxes being 4_s._, the pit 2_s._, the upper boxes 1_s._ 6_d._, and gallery 1_s._ At the Haymarket the boxes were 5_s._, the pit 3_s._, and the gallery 1_s._ 6_d._ [Illustration: LISTON AS ‘PAUL PRY’ (From a Drawing by George Cruikshank)] The actors and actresses were many and good. At the Haymarket they had Farren, Webster, Buckstone, Mrs. Glover, and Mrs. Humby. At the Olympic, Elliston, Liston, and Madame Vestris. Helen Faucit made her first appearance in 1835; Miss Fanny Kemble hers in 1830. Charles Mathews, Harley, Macready, and Charles Kean were all playing. I hardly think that in fifty years’ time so good a list will be made of actors of the present day whose memory has lasted so long as those of 1837. The salaries of actors and singers varied greatly, of course. Malibran received 125_l._ a night, Charles Kean 50_l._ a night, Macready 30_l._ a week, Farren 20_l._ a week, and so on, down to the humble chorister--they then called her a _figurante_--with her 12_s._ or 18_s._ a week. [Illustration: T N Talfourd -THOMAS NOON TALFOURD-]