It is
probably for this reason that theatricals were so popular amongst
the Diplomats in Petrograd, the plays being naturally always acted
in French.
Here I felt more or less at home. My grandmother, the Duchess of
Bedford, was passionately fond of acting, and in my grandfather's
time, one room at Woburn Abbey was permanently fitted up as a
theatre. Here, every winter during my mother's girlhood, there was
a succession of performances in which she, her mother and brothers
and sisters all took part, the Russell family having a natural
gift for acting. Probably the very name of Charles Matthews is
unfamiliar to the present generations, so it is sufficient to say
that he was THE light comedian of the early nineteenth century.
The Garrick Club possesses a fine collection of portraits of
Charles Matthews in some of his most popular parts. Charles
Matthews acted regularly with the Russell family at Woburn, my
mother playing the lead. I have a large collection of Woburn Abbey
play-bills, from 1831-1839, all printed on white satin, and some
of the pieces they put on were quite ambitious ones.
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