GEORGE ANNE BELLAMY,

LATE OF COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE.

WRITTEN BY HERSELF.

To which is annexed,

Her original Letter to JOHN CALCRAFT, Efq;
advertised to be published in October 1767,
but which was then violently fuppreffed.

"The Web of our Life is of a mingled Yarn, good and ill
❝together; our Virtues would be proud, if our Faults whipt
"them not; and our Crimes would defpair, if they were not
"cherished by our Virtues."

All's Well that Ends Well, A&t 4, Scene m

THE SECOND EDITIO

OF

IN FIVE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHO

And fold by J. BELL, at the British Library, STRAND.

MDCCLXXXV.

VIRGIA

was owing to feveral caufes. I had for fome time been allowed to be fole dictatrefs among the polite ranks in the article of drefs. My judgment in this point was held in fo much estimation, that the ladies would have been wretched who did not confult me relative to their birth day or fancy cloaths. A mafquerade had been given by the foreign Ambaffadors, which was the moft fplendid, entertainment of the kind ever feen in England. This afforded me and my dreffer, Mrs Tinns (whom I had left behind me at Drury-lane when I removed from that Theatre) fufficient employment. Fancy was tortured to fix on difVol. III.

B

ferent

ferent dreffes for the crouds of ladies that applied to us. Had I fuffered it, there would have been a hundred Eltrudas. Lady Kildare and Lady Granby were now added to my list of patroneffes. In return for the affiftance I had given the numerous ladies upon this occafion, they each of them made a point to employ all their interest to increase the emoluments of my night.

Dr. Francis having been promoted through my application to Mr. Fox, and his promotion much talked of, I was looked up to as a proper person through whom to feek for preferment. All the military gentlemen, therefore, feized this opportunity to court my favour; and as the fureft way to do so, paid a handfome tribute to my theatrical merit. Lord Kildare, Lord Granby, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Digby who was now returned from abroad, took four tickets at one hundred pound each; and the three laft continued their liberality to me till death. All these circumftances combined, account for the largenefs of the before mentioned fum.

I befides received presents from Afia, Africa, and America, together with others the produce of our own climate. In fhort I was now in poffeffion of every thing that could excite the envy of the world. And yet amidst all this, even in the very zenith of my fplendor, I was not happy. Like the celebrated Harlequin Carolin, who wept

under