George Powell ended his seven and twentieth season this year, at the close of which he died. For the old actor gone, a young actress appeared,--Mrs. Horton, "one of the most beautiful women that ever trod the stage." She had been a "stroller," ranting tragedy in barns and country towns, and playing Cupid, in a booth at suburban fairs. The attention of managers was directed towards her; and Booth, after seeing her act in Southwark, engaged her for Drury Lane, where her presence was more agreeable to the public than particularly pleasant to dear Mrs. Oldfield. FOOTNOTES: [94] Acted about seven times. In second edition Dr. Doran quotes a letter from Cromwell to Pope in which is stated that this play brought Johnson £300. [95] Acted about nine times. [96] This story is not true. (Second edition). [97] Should be "Female Advocates." [98] Yet it was played about eight times. [99] It was acted only six times. [100] Should be "Confederacy." [101] Quoted from a humorous account of the piece's reception, written by Pope. [Illustration: SPILLER'S BENEFIT TICKET.] CHAPTER XVI. COMPETITION, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. "Augustus," as it was the fashion to call George I., by performing a justifiable act, inflicted some injury this year, by restoring the Letters Patent of Charles II. to Christopher Rich, of which the latter had been deprived, and under which his son, John, opened the revived theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, on the 18th December 1714, with the "Recruiting Officer." The enlarged stage was "superbly adorned with looking-glasses on both sides;" a circumstance which Quin said "was an excellent trap to such actresses who admired their own persons more than they attended to the duties of their profession." Some good actors left Drury for the Fields;--Keen, the two Bullocks, Pack, Spiller, Cory, Knap, Mrs. Rogers, and Mrs. Knight. Cibber rather contemptuously says of such of the above as he names, that "they none of them had more than a negative merit,--being able only to do us more harm by leaving us without notice, than they could do us good by remaining with us; for, though the best of them could not support a play, the worst of them, by their absence, could maim it,--as the loss of the least pin in a watch may obstruct its motion."