LLLUSTRATLE D INTLRIELLTES.

AS 1oL ANTHE,” (Tolanthe.)

Ironta Photo. by Window & Giroee.

known m Winchelsea, as everywhere clse. One bright, sunburnt little maid, whom I met in one of the lances, told me she was going to Miss Terry's to tea “next Wednesday,” and, added the childy with cyes as big as stars and twinkling as brightly, “Miss Terry says poetry to us!” I was glad the child told me that, because it made assurance doubly surc of my estimate of the woman's character. T thought of the packed theatre, and the people who had paid half-a-guimea for their stalls; then of the handful of little ones who had an unpurchasable entertamment for nothing—Tlistening to Miss Terry “ saying poetry.”

I returned to Tower Cottage.

We met agamm on the turret top, and then T listened to the story of her life. How carnestly she spoke of cvervthing asso- cliated with her brilliant carcer. She has always been in the best cirele - theatrically speaking - -cver sinee she began, But she

From a Photo. byj AS Y PORTIALT (The Merchant of Venice.)

497

referred to all this very quietly. I [Ellen Terry impresses one on the stage as an actress, how much morc docs she do so when sitting sur- rounded by onc of the fairest of Nature’s scenes, as a woman ! When she remembers an ncident 1t 15 in- deed remembered. All the circum- stances connected with it crowd mto her memory, the place, the people — cverything, and she lives through it once again, even though 1t may belong to her very youngest years.

Miss Ellen Alice Terry was horn at Coventry in St. Valentine's month. St. Valentine’s month has scen the natal day of many of thc great — Wordsworth, Ruskin, Charles Die-

kens, Abraham Lincoln, Rossini, Joseph Jefferson, Victor Hugo,

Handecl, Tongfellow, J. R. T.owcll, (rcorge Washington, Cardinal New- man, and Henry Irving.

Swndsi

[V indowe £ Girove.

“ My father and mother,” said Miss Terry, “were acting from place to place. Then 1 came to them at Coventry. There is no trace of the heuse where T was born - it may have Leen at an inn or in lodgings. Tt is

Vol v —£64.