Event Comment: 1st piece [1st time; INT 1 by Francis Godolphin Waldron): Altered from THE FATAL EXTRAVAGANCE of [Joseph] Mitchell and Aaron Hill. "I went on Monday evening with Mrs Darner to the Little Haymarket, to see The Children in the Wood, having heard so much of my favourite, young Bannister, in that new piece; which, by the way, is well arranged, and near being fine. He more than answered my expectation, and all I had heard of him. It was one of the most admirable performances I ever saw: his transports of despair and joy are incomparable, and his various countenances would be adequate to the pencil of Salvator Rosa. He made me shed as many tears as I suppose the original old ballad did when I was six years old. Bannister's merit was the more striking, as, before The Children in the Wood, he had been playing the sailor in No Song No Supper, with equal nature" (Walpole [4 Dec. 1793], XV, 266-67)

Event Comment: Benefit Mrs Hill. At the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. At 7 p.m

Event Comment: Benefit Pearce, Sandham, Bowcher, Miss Hill. At the particular Desire of several Persons of Quality and Distinction

Event Comment: Benefit for ye Author put up by the Prince's Command but he did not come--ye Author [Aron Hill] dy'd on Wed last (Cross). Tickets to be had of Mr Miller over against Catherine St. in Strand. [For a short account of Hill, his death, his work, See Genest, IV, 295.] Payment this night to Norton #1 10s. for 2 chorus last night and 4 this. (Treasurer's Book). Receipts: #170 (Cross); charges, #63 (Treasurer's Book)

Event Comment: Benefit for Hill, Rees and Miss Sims. Morning Chronicle, 6 June: Tickets to be had of Hill, No. 24, Bow-street, opposite the Pit Door. [Others not listed.] 2nd piece [1st time: M. INT 1]. Receipts: #287 7s. (50.17.6; 4.0.6; tickets: 232.9.0)

Event Comment: Benefit Hill and Mrs Hill, the late Miss Anderson

Event Comment: Benefit: The Deceas'd Author's Friend or The Author [the bills vary]. A new Tragedy. [By William Bond. For a discussion of the play, see a letter from Hill to Victor, in Victor, History of the Theatres, II, 196-97. Hill states that the youth who speaks the Prologue is Harvey, a young man of eighteen or nineteen.

Event Comment: Benefit Winstone, Hill, Miss Cole. Tickets for Leigh, Peploe, Foxall also taken

Event Comment: The Sixth Day...at the Desire of several Ladies of Quality. Daily Advertiser, 2 Oct.: Last Saturday Night the reviv'd Play of Romeo and Juliet...was acted...to a numerous and polite Audience, with Great Applause. There was an extraordinary fine appearance of Ladies in the Boxes; and every one allow'd Miss Jenny Cibber (who has given Proofs of an uncommon Genius) was greatly inprov'd in the character of Juliet. The Quality and Gentry were all safely guarded to the chairs and Coaches by the Lads of St. James's Market. [Hill was the stage name for Johnson.

Event Comment: Mainpiece:In I A Grand Masqueradev. Afterpiece [1st time; M. INT 1, by Thomas John Dibdin]: To conclude with a new Scenic Representation of Britannia Triumphantv. Interspersed With a Variety of favorite old Airs, popular Songs, Parodies, &c. The Overture and new Songs composed and the Music in general arranged by Moorehead. The Machinery invented and executed by Cresswell. Books of the Songs to be had in the Theatre, price Six-pence. Morning Chronicle, 16 Oct. 1799: This day is published The Naval Pillar (price not listed). The afterpiece had reference to the contemplated erection of a "Naval Pillar" on Portsdown Hill, near Portsmouth, in commemoration of the recent victbries of the English navy. A plain pillar is at the last introduced, with the names of the most celebrated admirals on a scroll, round which the sailors and their sweethearts dance with peculiar festivity. The pillar now flies open, and displays a most magnificent and appropriate spectacle--consisting of Britannia, personated by Mrs Chapman, under a rich canopy, with the figures of a sailor and a soldier for supporters, pointing to the letters G. R. over a brilliant sun, which turns on the center; shrouded in clouds above, and surrounded by angels, is a medallion of Lord Howe, and on columns on each side of the canopy are medallions of your great living naval commanders" (Monthly Visitor, Oct. 1799, p. 180). Receipts: #284 10s. 6d. (277.18.6; 6.12.0)

Event Comment: [In mainpiece the playbill retains Incledon, but "Family distresses (The loss of an amiable wife) preventing Incledon from appearing in public, the part of Darbony was assigned to Hill" (Dramatic Censor, I, 181).] Receipts: #215 11s. 6d. (212.0.6; 3.11.0)

Event Comment: [Miss Hill, who was from the Plymouth theatre, is identified in European Magazine, Oct. 1794, p. 285.] Receipts: #257 11s. (250.12.6; 6.18.6)