particular position. It was only by persons
crossing a certain stile that she could then
be seen, gliding mysteriously out of a dark
wood. Evidently this was the spirit of a
lady who had been slain close to the stile, at
some past time, when the moon stood in that
position in the sky, to see the murder done,
and she had been dragged into the wood for
burial. An old woman afterwards told me,
that, on a winter evening, her only child
having suddenly been taken ill, she hurried
to the doctor ; and, to save a considerable
round, made bold to climb the stile, and run
across the haunted field. The white spectre
darted up before her from the border of the
wood ; and, when she returned by the same
road with the doctor, there was nothing to be
seen. She pointed out where the white lady
had stood. The doctor went next night, at
the right hour to see her, saw her, went up to
her, and found only a long pool of water with
a rude resemblance to the figure of a woman.
The dark relief of the surrounding trees
caused the pool, when the moonlight caught
its surface, to appear as if it stood erect
before them. We never believed that in
Dulminster, and it added only to the legend
that the body of the lady murdered at the
stile had been carried or dragged over the
grass, and thrown into the pool.

Ghost stories belonged to nearly all our
streets. Many a deed of violence was done in
them, or under the shadows of our gloomy
gateways, crumbling towers, and thick walls.
Our streets were narrow, winding hither and
thither up and down steep places, full of
houses of Elizabeth's time, and perhaps older,
that projected story over story, till on the
sky side, in many places, opposite neighbours
might take light from one another's pipes.
As for the castle, the whole history of
England seemed to have been scratched over it,
or thumped against it. There was an old
church-bell, too, in the town, that used to
sound the hour for all good little boys to go
to bed. I used to go to bed by it. It was
my curfew.

At the Theatre Royal, Dulminster, ghosts,
robbers, murderers, were at home. How
much a-year the manager spent on blue fire I
have wondered since; but then I used to
think that he really had, underneath his
stage, that entrance to the pit you read
about in Virgil. There was a Mademoiselle
Alecto, who hissed at us in all the leading
parts; but never a serpent in all Dulminster
dared to hiss at her. She was an
appreciated woman. But we had appreciated,
also, Mrs. Siddons and the Kembles. The
greatest of old-man comedians was born in
Dulminster.

We patronised the drama in the good old
way. No tradesman, however wealthy or
worthy, would have been so audacious as to
intrude himself or his family into the dress-
circle among sacred turbans of the ladies of
the old town families and county people.

Gracious only knows what might have
happened after a tradesman —possibly a
Radical —had sat upon the sacred benches!
Dulminster folk, who went so far and fast as
that, might find their way to London in seven
hours instead of seven days, ride their own
coaches instead of horses, compass the world's
destruction by obtaining radical reform. The
British constitution never would have been
expected to live many days after so great an
outrage. In my early days, the chance of
such an outrage never entered people's heads.
The dress-circle was empty, except when,
a great star came down to shine among us.
Then great was the frequentation of the
small perfumer's shop at which the seats were
let. Then, in due time, large and leathery
four-wheeled vehicles of all sorts, including
carriages and four with postilions, crowded
the streets outside the theatre, and sedan-
chairs blocked the way up in the lobby. The
members for the town and those also for the
county furnished a few more attractive nights
by bespeaking each of them a play during
the season. The officers at the barracks
and several of the leading county families
bestowed patronage by a bespeak. On such
occasions the assembly in the dress-circle was
more or less distinguished in proportion to
the rank or popularity of the bespeaker; a
large part of the pit was filled by tradesmen,
with whom the old family of the bespeaker
dealt, and with whose ancestors their
ancestors had dealt for centuries. The foremost
rows of the gallery accommodated a
population of rosy-cheeked servants and
farmers' daughters, with their dear brothers
and dearer cousins; all of whom drove
to the theatre merrily in carts and
waggons.

It was not in the theatre alone that our
old families maintained their dignity. We
had among us many worthy merchants, ship-
builders, ship-owners, and manufacturers;
men of sterling integrity and great ability,
who felt a hearty interest in the wellbeing
of their native place. None of these persons
ever became mayors or aldermen in
Dulminster. The municipal dignities were all
kept to themselves, by our old families. We—
they, I mean —had a commodious mansion-
house handsomely furnished, an establishment
of servants, a stud of horses, and the
state and private carriages provided for the
mayor; who was, moreover, allowed two or
three thousand pounds a-year wherewith to
support the honour of his office. As our old
families only intermarried with each other,
nearly all the aldermen were more or less
connected by relationship; and they chose
as mayor one of their set whose decayed
circumstances made him a fit object for such
kindness.

Our elective body was composed of the
freemen, who were sons of freemen, or had
served a seven years' apprenticeship to any
guild. It was the habit of a large number of