CHARLES II. MR HENRY GREVILLE EARL of ROCHESTER MR ALFRED WIGAN CAPTAIN COPP MR EDWARD SARTORIS HONBLE. GEORGE BYNG[49] LADY CLARA MRS SARTORIS MARY COPP MISS MARY BOYLE the evening concluding with Alfred Wigan’s _chef-d’œuvre_ of _The First Night_. How well I recall the happy meetings which the rehearsals entailed. Footnote 49: Afterwards third Earl of Strafford. It was a brilliant success financially and socially. The Sartorises at that time had no country house of their own, but it was their habit to hire one, during the summer and autumn months, in different parts of England, where I often visited them, and spent hours of happy intercourse with dear Adelaide and her sister Fanny, enjoying the delight of intellectual conversation and genial sympathy. At Henry Greville’s house in Queen Street, where his small and select reunions had all the characteristics of a French _salon_, all the best musicians of the day lent their talents to make the evening attractive in the highest degree; while it was a standing jest among the female friends of our dear host, that their newest toilettes and brightest diamonds were to be worn in his honour. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XXV ROCKINGHAM CASTLE—CHARLES DICKENS. The autumn of 1850 marks, indeed, a memorable era in my heart’s calendar, for it was then I spoke for the first time with Charles Dickens. He had been my familiar friend, as a writer, for years—since his publication of “Sketches by Boz”—but the day that my conquest was complete was while on a visit to Burghley. My brother Cavendish had secured an odd number of “Pickwick,” and coming up to my favourite little room (“Queen Elizabeth’s China Closet”), he told me he had a treat in store for me, and then and there read aloud to my enraptured ears a scene where the runaway couple were tracked through the medium of “Sam Weller,” who, in his capacity of “Boots” at the hotel, had blacked Mr Jingle’s Wellingtons and Miss Wardle’s shoes in No. 17. How we laughed! How many interruptions were caused by our frequent shouts! Suffice it to say that from that day forward no page of our beloved author was left unread by either brother or sister, though the time was far distant ere he became the fast friend of both.