Page:Notable Irishwomen.djvu/42

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NOTABLE IRISHWOMEN.

This boy afterwards became Chief Justice Burroughs, and years afterwards, when the poor, shabby little girl had blossomed into a Countess, they met again on the Windsor Road, and again help was given, and received, as we shall hear.

George Farren died, a comparatively young man, and his widow and children had to support themselves as best they could. Two of his daughters, Eliza and Peggy (afterwards Mrs. Knight), took small juvenile parts, Eliza having been a sort of infant phenomenon almost from her babyhood.

At the age of fourteen she was acting with her mother and sister at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, under T. W. Wilkinson, and when only fifteen she made her first appearance at Liverpool, as Rosetta in "Love in a Village." She was now under Mr. Younger, a kind, benevolent man, as well as an excellent manager. He took the greatest interest in the young actress, and treated her as his own child. He strongly advised her to go to London, and gave her an introduction to Colman, who at that time controlled the destinies of the Haymarket Theatre, and who was all powerful in the theatrical world, being a dramatic author as well as a capable and experienced manager.

On the 9th June, 1777, Eliza Farren appeared at the Haymarket in the character of Kate Hardcastle, in Goldsmith's comedy, "She Stoops to Conquer." She was favourably but not enthusias-