20 OCTOBER 1888, Page 15

EDMUND KEAN.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOE."1 SIR,—Your interesting article on the Life of Edmund Kean —a new work which I have not seen—tells me that its author repeats the usual story, that Nance Carey was the great actor's mother. In 1859, I contributed to a periodical—long since defunct—a slight biography of my valued friend, Charles Kean, for which he supplied me with incidents ; and I quote what he told me respecting his father's birth :—" Who were his parents, he himself scarcely seems to have ascertained ; for in later life he was pensioning two women on the ground of maternal claims upon him. But the truth appears to be, that Ann Carey was his real mother, and that Miss Tidswell was his aunt, who showed him much affection and kindness during an ill-used childhood, and that he was consequently always inclined to treat her with filial regard." All this may possibly be in Mr. Fitzgerald Molloy's work.—I am, Sir, &c„

A. G-.