p. 98 _little Mrs. Ariell_. This actress doubtless belonged to the Nursery, a training theatre for boys and girls intended for the stage. Established under Royal Letters Patent issued 30 March, 1664, it is frequently alluded to in contemporary literature. There was only one Nursery, although, as it not infrequently changed its quarters, two are sometimes stated to have existed simultaneously, an easy and plausible mistake, The Nursery was originally in Hatton Garden, About 1668 it was transferred to Vere Street, and thence finally to the Barbican. Mr. W. J. Lawrence in an able history of _Restoration Stage Nurseries_, shows that Wilkinson’s oft-engraved view of the supposed Fortune Theatre is none other than this Golden Lane Nursery on the site of the old Fortune Theatre. Mrs. Ariell, a young girl, probably performed Fanny in _Sir Patient Fancy_. Occasionally the names of other Nursery actresses occur. We have a certain Miss Nanny, of whom nothing is known, billed as Clita, a small part in D’Urfey’s _The Commonwealth of Women_, produced August, 1685. The prefix ‘Miss’ as meaning a young girl occurs here in a bill for the first time. A decade later we have Miss Allinson as Hengo, a lad, in an alteration of Fletcher’s _Bonduca_, and Miss Cross as Bonvica, Bonduca’s youngest daughter. In 1693 Miss Allison, who took the part of Jano, a page boy, in Southerne’s _The Maid’s Last Prayer_, is billed as Betty Allison. In 1696 again, Miss Cross, with Horden, spoke the prologue to D’Urfey’s _Don Quixote_, Part III. In the cast, however, when she enacted Altisidora, she is described as Mrs. Cross, A Miss Howard acted Kitty in Motteux’s _Love’s a Jest(1696) and, ‘in page’s habit_,’ spoke the epilogue to Dilke’s _The Lover’s Luck_ the same year. After that date ’.iss’ instead of the heretofore ‘Mrs.’ became more general. The name of the child actress, doubtless from the Nursery, who took the young Princess Elizabeth in Banks’ _Virtue Betray’d; or, Anna Bullen_ (1682) has not come down to us. _Wits led by the Nose; or, A Poet’s Revenge_, an alteration of Chamberlaine’s unacted _Love’s Victory_ (4to 1658), produced at the Theatre Royal in the summer of 1677, has indifferent performers such as Coysh, Perrin, in the leading roles; whilst other parts are cast thus: Sir Jasper Sympleton, Stiles; Jack Drayner, Nathaniel Q.; Heroina, Mrs. Baker, Jun.; Theocrine, Mrs. F[arlee?]. Stiles, Nathaniel Q., Mrs. Baker, Jun., Mrs. F[arlee?] were all temporary recruits from the Nursery. In the spring of 1678 the younger members act again in Leanerd’s _The Rambling Justice_. Powre played Sir John Twiford; Disney, Contentious Surley; Mr. Q., Spywell; Mrs. Merchant, Petulant Easy; Mrs. Bates, Emilia. The Nursery disappears about 1686. Certainly in 1690 it was the custom for young aspirants to the sock and buskin to join the regular theatres without preliminary training elsewhere. FOOTNOTES: