I will only, add, as below, an interesting extract from this diary, just before I had parted with my worthy agent aforesaid:--"He has told me some curious anecdotes about eminent _artistes_ whom he has chaperoned, _e.g._ Thackeray came to Clifton to give four readings on the Georges; the first reading had only three auditors, the second not one; so Thackeray went away.

Bellew is uncertain; sometimes having empty benches, sometimes overflowing ones, according to the programme, whether serious or laughable.

Tom Hood gave a lecture on Humour, which was so dull that the audience left him.
Miss Glyn Dallas often reads 'Cleopatra,' magnificently too, to empty benches.

Sims Reeves draws a vast audience, but sometimes at the last moment refuses to sing (probably paying forfeit) because he is always afraid of something giving way in his throat.

Dickens, though with crowded audiences, was not liked, nor nearly so good as Mr .---- expected: he carried about with him a sort of show-box, set round with lights and covered with purple cloth, in the midst of which he appeared in full evening costume with bouquet in button-hole, and, as Mr .---- said, 'very stiff.' Mr .-- -- has just engaged Madame Lemmens Sherrington and six others for sixty-three concerts at a cost of L4000, for he says that good music--after low humour--is the best thing to pay.