Yorkshire Almanac Charles Mathews, comedian, awaiting his fellow actors at York for the evening performance, receives some unwelcome news from a newly arrived foreigner

19 December 1826: Charles Mathews, comedian, awaiting his fellow actors at York for the evening performance, receives some unwelcome news from a newly arrived foreigner

A tribute by Isaac Cruikshank to Charles Mathews’s show The Mail-coach (Cruikshank 1795-1811).

Anne Mathews Jackson. 1839. Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian, Vol. 3. London: Richard Bentley. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

The excerpt in the book is shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

To Mrs. Mathews
York, December 20th, 1826

I was, last night, gloriously repaid for all my toils, and they were not trifling. On Monday night, I had one hour and a half at the table, and acted in “Before Breakfast” and “Jonathan;” travelled here yesterday, and acted “Youthful Days” and “Before Breakfast.” Rather tough work. To-night I rest my old bones. I dine at Belcombe’s. They go to the ball, and I read all alone.

I do think I meet with droller adventures than anybody else. At dinner, yesterday, a foreigner told, as droll, a story, at which he almost choked with laughter, of the difficulties he had encountered to get to dinner at five o’clock. That he had left Hull that morning at six – the steamer was agoing to blow up I believe; however, he could not go on – “and we were all put ashore at Goole, and we were obliged to walk three miles up to our knees in mud, till we came to de ferry; and dere vas only von chaise, vich I took. Some of de players vas dere, and dey could not get on.”-“Was there a person there of the name of Willson?”[Mathews’s professional servant] said I.-“Oh, yes; a fittler, I believe. He is left too. Dey cannot get here to-night. Ha! ha! ha!” You may suppose my feelings. I sent away my plate, and was dandled up and down, with a sick stomach, in a sedan to the theatre, as soon as I could get one, expecting to have the mortification of dismissing the house. I have not time to tell the rest of the particulars; but as to my chaises, they arrived in time, a few minutes before seven, and the relief made me act in tip-top spirits.

Having nothing further to say, I can only say, “If you loves me as I loves you,” why you are as affectionate as

C. MATHEWS.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Comment

The ferry in question is the one at Booth/Boothferry from before the 1929 bridge.

Which theatre in York were they appearing at?

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Comment

The ferry in question is the one at Booth/Boothferry from before the 1929 bridge.

Which theatre in York were they appearing at?

Something to say? Get in touch

24 July 1771: Actor-manager Tate Wilkinson opens Puritan Leeds’ first proper theatre with comic impressions of leading Methodists

1 July 1840: The opening of the Hull and Selby Railway terminates the threat to Hull’s port from Goole, Scarborough and Bridlington

13 September 1894: J.B. Priestley descends on a cloud to the West Riding of Yorkshire

20 June 1817: Lines spoken by the actor Alexander Cummins at the Leeds Theatre are enacted sooner than he might have wished

5 February 1643: Rioting locals reïnundate Hatfield Chase in protest at flooding and a loss of fishing and fowling caused by Netherlandish colonists and Cornelius Vermuyden’s land reclamation scheme

16 August 1845: The York Herald is conned into posting the American actor Ira Aldridge’s sensational account of his own death

25 September 1066: The Stamford Bridge massacre by Harold Godwinson’s army of Harald Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson’s force – symbol of the end of the Viking Age

15 November 1444: A survey of the boundaries of York

19 July 1849: As William Clarke’s All-England Eleven begins a match against a Hull 22, the local paper notes the failure of seaports to produce good cricketers

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Comment

At around seven o’clock on Saturday evening, at the end of the third day, the All England Eleven triumphed by an innings and 83 runs, having scored 212 in their first innings and then bowled out the Hull twenty-two twice, for 65 and 64 – an incredibly low scoring rate by modern standards (Hull Packet 1849/07/27).

Tip of the hat to Hull & East Yorkshire History Calendar.

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