At the same time, she was loth to leave her appreciative friends at Bath, and, curiously enough, hesitated at the last moment about accepting; so that Whalley’s congratulatory poem on her engagement at Drury Lane, contributed to Lady Miller’s “Roman Vase,” was a little premature. At last, however, her departure was formally announced, and she took her farewell benefit. She acted in the _Distressed Mother_ and _The Devil to Pay_, and then came forward and recited some lines _of her own composition_, of which we give the reader only a short sample, as the “Virgin Muse” does not soar very high:— Have I not raised some expectation here? “Wrote by herself? What! authoress and player? True, we have heard her”—thus I guess’d you’d say— “With decency recite another’s lay; But never heard, nor ever could we dream, Herself had sipp’d the Heliconian stream.” Perhaps you farther said—Excuse me, pray, For thus supposing all that you might say— “What will she treat of in this same address? Is it to show her learning? Can you guess?” Here let me answer: No. Far different views Possess’d my soul, and fired my virgin Muse. ’Twas honest gratitude, at whose request Sham’d be the heart that will not do its best! She then informs them they must part; that, if only she meets as much kindness elsewhere, Envy, o’ercome, will hurl her pointless dart, And critic gall be shed without its smart. Nothing would drag her from Bath, she says, but one thing; here she went to the wing and led forward her children:— These are the moles that bear me from your side, Where I was rooted—where I could have died. The moles now numbered three, her second daughter and third child, Maria, having been born on 1st July 1779. Stand forth, ye elves! and plead your mother’s cause, Ye little magnets, whose soft influence draws Me from a point where every gentle breeze Wafted my bark to happiness and ease— Sends me adventurous on a larger main, In hopes that you may profit by my gain. Have I been hasty? Am I, then, to blame? Answer, all ye who own a parent’s name! Thus have I tired you with an untaught muse, Who for your favour still most humbly sues; That you for classic learning will receive My soul’s best wishes, which I freely give— For polished periods round, and touched with art, The fervent offering of my grateful heart. So Mrs. Siddons made her bow. When she next appeared at Bath it was as the greatest tragic actress then on the stage. Towards the end of August, she set out determined to make her way slowly to London, acting at various country theatres as she went along. Her letters written to the Whalleys are full of fun, and show she had the pen of a ready writer.