CHAPTER SIXThe carriage, having dropped Giselda at The Plough, carried the Earl and Captain Somercote up the High Street towards the Theatre Royal.
The history of Cheltenham’s theatrical prowess was a remarkable one.
Originally a very small malt house had been converted into a primitive theatre.
It was here that the young Sarah Siddons appeared in Venice Preserved and she moved the members of the audience so emotionally that her performance was reported to David Garrick.
Shortly afterwards she began her famous career on the London stage and many other great actors such as Charles Kemble, Dorothy Jordan and Harriet Mellon had played in the converted malt house where the ‘tiring room’ was a hayloft.
The Theatre Royal, although small, was elegant and airy and the architecture and colouri
