Kean's engagement with Richardson brings us to a portion of his personal history which is involved in the profoundest mystery. His biographers state that his mother, Anne Carey, was at the time a member of Richardson's company, that Kean was unaware of the fact when he engaged, and that he left the _troupe_ not very long afterwards, in consequence of his mother claiming and receiving his salary, the last circumstance being said to rest on the authority of Kean himself. Not much credence is due to the story on that account; for the great actor exercised his imagination on the subject of his origin and antecedents as freely as the Josiah Bounderby of the inimitable Dickens. But the results of a patient search among the gatherings relating to Bartholomew Fair in the library of the British Museum clearly prove that Kean's mother was, when a member of Richardson's company, the wife of an actor named Carey. The only Careys whose names are to be found in any of the bills of Richardson's theatre which have been preserved were a married couple, who for many years, including the whole period of Kean's engagement, sustained the principal parts in those wonderful melodramas for which the establishment was so famous. If these people were Kean's parents, what becomes of the story which has been told by his biographers, on the authority of Miss Tidswell? That they assumed to be his parents is undoubted, and it is equally beyond doubt that the relationship was unquestioned by Richardson, and the claims founded upon it acquiesced in by Kean. "Windsor Fair," said Richardson, in relating the story of Kean's professional visit to Windsor Castle, "commenced on a Friday, and after all our impediments we arrived safe, and lost no time in erecting our booth. We opened with _Tom Thumb_ and the _Magic Oak_. To my great astonishment, I received a note from the Castle, commanding Master Carey to recite several passages from different plays before his Majesty King George the Third at the Palace. I was highly gratified at the receipt of the above note; but I was equally perplexed to comply with the commands of the King. The letter came to me on Saturday night; and as Master Carey's wardrobe was very scanty, it was necessary to add to it before he could appear in the presence of royalty. My purse was nearly empty, and to increase my dilemma, all shops belonging to Jews were shut, and the only chance we had left was their being open on Sunday morning.