The wig was of the pattern worn on state occasions by
the Lord Chief Justice of England, a structure of horsehair, that
descended to the shoulders in dense lappels. Pentland, who had been
fifty years a manager, was much bent with infirmity, and afflicted
with gout in all his members, still was wont to appear as the juvenile
heroes of the drama. But in his every part, whether Hamlet or Don
Felix, Othello or Lord Townley, he invariably assumed this formidable
wig. Altogether his aspect and performance must have been of an
extraordinary kind. He played Plume, the lively hero of Farquhar's
"Recruiting Officer," dressed in an old suit of regimentals, and
wearing above his famous wig a prodigious cocked hat. The rising of
the curtain discovered him seated in an easy-chair with his lower
limbs swathed in flannels. He was, indeed, unable to walk, or even to
stand, and throughout the performance had to be wheeled on and off the
stage. Surely light comedy was never seen under such disadvantageous
conditions. He endeavoured to compensate for his want of locomotive
power by taking snuff with great frequency, and waving energetically
in the air a large and soiled pocket-handkerchief.
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