409 



SIDDONS, MRS. SARAH. 



SIDMOUTH, VISCOUNT. 



494 



Greathead, of Guy's Cliff, Warwickshire, in the capacity of reader and 

 companion. At the age of eighteen the affection of the young couple 

 being undiminished by separation, Mr. and Mrs. Kemble consented to 

 their union. They were married at Trinity Church, Coventry, 

 November 26, 1773, and the young bride returned to the provincial 

 stage at Cheltenham in company with her husband. At Cheltenham 

 she attracted the notice of the Hon. Mies Boyle, Lord Bruce, after- 

 wards created Earl of Aylesbury, and pome other noble personages. 

 Upon their strong recommendation, Garrick was induced to send 

 King down to Cheltenham, to witness her performance in the ' Fair 

 Penitent.' The Rev. Henry Bate, afterwards Sir Henry Bate Dudley, 

 was also much struck by her Rosalind ; and her transfer to the metro- 

 polis being at length determined on, she made her first appearance in 

 London at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on Friday, December 29, 

 1775, being then only twenty years of age, in the character of Portia, 

 in the ' Merchant of Venice : ' Garrick performed Shy lock. She was 

 announced simply as 'a young lady;' and, though favourably 

 received, failed to make any strong impression, being thought more 

 of as a beautiful young woman than as a great or even promising 

 actress. On the revival of ' Richard the Third/ Garrick not having 

 acted Gloster for five years, he cast Mrs. Siddons the part of Lady 

 Anne. " She there," says Mr. Boaden, " met Roscius in all his terrors ; " 

 and on the first night hung a little back from timidity. " I have 

 mentioned," he continues, "in another work the glance of reproach 

 that corrected the failure, and the extreme sensibility with which it 

 was long retained." The fact was, as Mr. Campbell states it, that 

 instead of advancing to the front of the stage and turning, as Garrick 

 had instructed her, from the audience, she by " hanging a little back," 

 compelled him to act the scene with his back towards the audience, 

 instead of hers, an unintentional annoyance which he never forgave 

 her, for at the close of the season when the re-engagements for the 

 next campaign were under consideration, his answer to the person 

 who mentioned in her turn " the young lady," was simply " Let her 

 go." This latter circumstance we state on the authority of a con- 

 temporary of Garrick and a most intimate friend of Mrs. Siddons, 

 whose memory was as clear and retentive as his means of information 

 were numerous and peculiar. 



But the triumph of Mrs. Siddons, though retarded, was not to be 

 prevented even by so great a theatrical potentate as Garrick. In the 

 summer of 1776, she appeared at Birmingham, where her genius was 

 acknowledged by the celebrated actor, Henderson, who pronounced 

 her to be "the first and best of actresses; to have in herself all that 

 her predecessors possessed and all they wanted," and predicted that 

 " she would never be surpassed." From Birmingham she went to 

 Manchester, York, and Bath, increasing her reputation to such a 

 degree that offers were again made to her from the metropolis ; and 

 on the 10th of October 1782, she reappeared at Drury Lane, as 

 Isabella, in the ' Fatal Marriage.' On the 30th of October, she per- 

 formed Euphrasia in 'The Grecian Daughter,' and subsequently 

 enacted Jane Shore, Calista in ' The Fair Penitent,' and Belvidera in 

 ' Venice Preserved,' a succession of triumphs which established her 

 fame ; and at the end of the season she went to Dublin, where her 

 brother John was engaged for three years. In 1783 the celebrated 

 trial of skill took place between the rival Lady Randolphs, Mrs. 

 Crawford, at Covent Garden, and Mrs. Siddons, at Drury Lane, and 

 added another leaf to the laurels of the latter. In 1784 a cabal was 

 made against her, upon a most unfounded charge of illiberality 

 towards two brother performers, and she personally addressed the 

 audience at the opening of Drury Lane, on the 5th of October, having 

 been assailed by hooting and hissing on her appearance as Mrs. 

 Beverley. On the 2nd of February 1785, Mrs. Siddons first per- 

 formed Lady Macbeth. In 1794 Mrs. Siddons opened Holland's new 

 Drury Lane Theatre by the performance of Lady Macbeth, on which 

 occasion her brother Charles made his first appearance in the character 

 of Macduff ; and, in 1809, she again, as Lady Macbeth, assisted at the 

 opening of the new Covent Garden Theatre, September 18th. The 

 notorious O.P. row ensuing, seven months elapsed before she made 

 her second appearance that season, repeating Lady Macbeth on the 

 24th of April 1810. Two years afterwards, on the 29th of June 1812, 

 Mrs. Siddons took her leave of the stage she had so long adorned by 

 her genius and elevated by her private conduct, in the same celebrated 

 character of Lady Macbeth, after which she spoke a farewell address, 

 written by her nephew, Mr. Horace Twiss. Thrice again however 

 during the next season she was induced to revisit the scenes and 

 revive the recollections of her former glories : she performed on the 

 25th of May for the Covent Garden Theatrical Fund ; on the llth of 

 June for Mr. Charles Kemble's benefit, and on the 22nd of the same 

 month at Drury Lane for the fund of that theatre. In November 1815, 

 she acted for ten nights at Edinburgh for the benefit of the widow and 

 family of her son Henry ; again at Covent Garden, four times in 1816, 

 for benefits and charities, and at the request of the Princess Charlotte 

 of AY ales, who was however unfortunately prevented by illness from 

 witnessing the performance. In 1817 she performed once (June 5) 

 for Mr. C. Kemble's benefit, and made her final appearance upon any 

 stage at Covent Garden, June 9, 1818, for the benefit of Mr. and Mrs. 

 Charles Kemble, in the character of Lady Randolph. 



For two seasons after her public farewell in 1812, Mrs. Siddons 

 gave occasional readings alternately from Shakspere and Milton at the 



Argyle Rooms, having been led to do so in the first instance by the 

 kind desire of serving the widow of Mr. Cherry, author of ' The 

 Soldier's Daughter.' She was also honoured by a command to read 

 to Queen Charlotte and the Royal family at Frogmore, and an invita- 

 tion from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. " Whether this 

 great actress regretted the stated calls to exertion," says Mr. Boaden, 

 " I know not." That she did regret them however there can be little 

 doubt, from the following remarks, which she one day made to an 

 old and attached friend, an eminent physician, from whose lij s we 

 heard it. It was about the period of the evening when she had been 

 accustomed to repair to the theatre to dress for the performance. 

 " At this time," she observed, " every body in London used to be 

 thinking of me now, nobody thinks of me ! " The tone in which 

 this was spoken, and the sigh which accompanied it, sufficiently indi- 

 cated the feeling with which she contrasted her public and private life, 

 although still the queen of every circle she condescended to enter. 

 She died on the 8th of June 1831, about nine in the morning, at her 

 residence in Upper Baker-street, in the seventy-sixth year of her age, 

 and the prophecy of Henderson has not yet been falsified. 



SIDMOUTH, HENRY ADDINGTON, VISCOUNT. The father 

 of Lord Sidmouth was Dr. Anthony Addington, a physician, who, after 

 practising for some time with considerable distinction in London, was 

 induced by the state of his health to retire from the metropolis, and 

 to settle in Reading, where he died in 1790. Dr. Addington married 

 in 1745 Mary, daughter of the Rev. Haviland John Hiley, of Reading; 

 and Henry, who was born at Reading on the 30th of May 1757, was 

 their eldest son. Mrs. Addingtou died in 1778. In the beginning of 

 that same year Dr. Addington obtained much notoriety by a strange 

 attempt in which he engaged in conjunction with Sir James Wright, 

 the medical attendant of the Earl of Bute, to bring about a political 

 alliance between that nobleman and the Earl of Chatham, whom. 

 Addington had been in the habit of visiting in his professional capacity. 

 The negociatiou, which of course came to nothing, appears to have 

 originated solely with the two physicians who afterwards quarrelled 

 upon the subject and assailed one another, through the press, with 

 mutual contradictions and recriminations and to have been carried 

 on for the greater part without the knowledge of the two noble persons 

 who were principally concerned. Lord Chatham was at the time on 

 his deathbed. 



Meanwhile Addington's son Henry, after having commenced his 

 classical education at Winchester School, had been entered at Brazeimose 

 College, Oxford, in January 1774. He took his degree of B.A. in 

 February 1778; and in 1779 obtained the Bachelor's prize for an 

 English essay. On leaving the University he entered himself a student 

 of Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar on the llth of May 1784. 

 Events however had by this time taken a course which had the effect 

 of withdrawing him from, the further pursuit of the profession upon 

 which he had thus entered. His father's connection with the family 

 of Lord Chatham had led to an intimacy while they were yet boys 

 between him and the younger William Pitt, who was his junior by 

 about three years, but had been in parliament since 1780, and was 

 already, when Addington was called to the bar, firmly seated in the 

 post of first minister of the crown. Addington is said to have been 

 previously fond of attending the debates in the House of Commons ; 

 his brother-in-law, James Sutton, Esq., of New Park, had much 

 influence at Devizes ; and on Mr. Pitt's suggestion he stood for and 

 succeeded in getting himself returned for that borough at the general 

 election which preceded the opening of the new parliament on the 

 18th of May 1784. 



The long political career upon which he now entered was not 

 marked by many events in which he bore a prominent part, and its 

 general course may be briefly traced. So long as he was only a private 

 member of the House of Commons in which he retained his seat for 

 Devizes until he became a peer he was, as might be expected, one of 

 Mr. Pitt's steadiest supporters. Accordingly, when the office of Speaker 

 became vacant in May 1789, by the promotion of Mr. (afterwards 

 Lord) Grenville to be secretary of state, Addington, although so 

 comparatively young a member, was put forward as the ministerial 

 candidate, and was elected by a large majority. He filled the chair, 

 with considerable credit, if not with any remarkable distinction, till 

 on the retirement of Pitt, in March 1801, he was induced to undertake 

 the formation and chieftainship of a new ministry, with the offices of 

 chancellor of the exchequer and first lord of the treasury, as they had 

 been held by his predecessor. He differed, therefore, it now appeared, 

 from Pitt upon the great question of Roman Catholic emancipation, 

 upon which that minister had gone out; but there were probably 

 other subjects upon which their opinions and views had by this time 

 considerably diverged. Addington had come to be considered as the 

 leader or head of the class of persons specially styled the King's 

 Friends ; and it was understood to have been at the express request 

 of his majesty that he now assumed office. The most memorable 

 event of Mr .Addington's short administration was the Peace of Amiens, 

 which proved still shorter than its author's tenure of power. Soon 

 after the renewal of the war in the beginning of 1803, Pitt, who had 

 hitherto supported his old friend, began to intimate an apprehension 

 that he was scarcely equal to the crisis, and then openly joined Fox 

 and the regular opposition. The result was that Addingtou resigned, 

 and Pitt waa restored to power in May of the following year. 



