EDMUND KEAN.
I TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Concerning the letter of your correspondent, "A. G.," will you kindly allow me to say I have found statements which,. I think, clearly prove Nance Carey to have been the mother of Edmund Kean
One J. Anderson, of Camden Cottages, Camden Town, has. left it on record that he was "particularly intimate" with Edmund Kean the elder. "About the year 1787 or 1788," he- writes,—" My intimacy with Edmund was interrupted by his attention to Miss Carey, daughter of George Saville Carey ; and our evening walks generally terminated at the door of Carey's chambers in Gray's Inn."
The sequel of Kean's " attention " to Miss Carey is told by Miss Tidswell. One morning in March, the latter was awaked by the elder Kean, who said,—" Nance Carey is with child, and begs you to go to her at her lodgings in Chancery Lane." Accompanied by her aunt, Miss Tidswell went to Nance Carey, who soon after gave birth to an infant who eventually became- England's greatest tragic actor.
Moreover, in a letter Nance Carey addressed to the tragedian. she styles him, "My dear child," and calls herself "his affec- tionate mother." From the year he became famous, he allowed her fifty pounds a year; I can find no proof that he was equally liberal to Miss Tidswell, as has been asserted. Finally, Nance Carey was living with him in the cottage close by the- Richmond Theatre during his last days. All this I have mentioned in "The Life and Adventures of Edmund Kean."
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