Personal reminiscences of Henry Irving

Transcription: ATR-1

16/6/06 35 once. Sir Henry is ill. He fainted in the hall just as he did at Wolverhampton. When the doctor came I rushed off for you. We all jumped into the carriage & hurried as fast as we could go to the hotel. In the hall were a group of some twenty men grouped round Irving who lay at full length on the floor. One of the doctors - there were three of them there then - told me quietly that he was dead. He had died just two minutes before. The clock in the hall showed the time then as eight minutes to twelve. So itt he died at ten minutes to twelve. It was almost impossible to believe that he was dead as he lay there with his eyes open. I peered down by him & felt his heart to see know for myself if it was indeed death. But all was sadly still His body was still quite warm. Walter Collinson his faithful violet was sitting on the floor beside him, crying. He said to me through his sobs: "He died in my arms!" His face looked very thin & the features sharp as he lay there with his chest high & his head fallen back but with none of the usual ungracefulness of death. The long iron-gray hair had fallen back showing the great height of his roundish forehead. The bridge of his nose stood out sharp & high. I closed his eyes myself - but as I had had no experience in such a matter I asked one of the doctors who kindly with deft fingers straightened the eye lids. Then we carried him upstairs to his room and laid him on his bed. What the rest had fore it I had to send a host of telegrams at once to inform the various members of his family and the press. The latter had to go to a C C street we could for the hour of his death was such that there was no local information. Lovely arrived at the hotel after we had carried him to his room. He was indeed greatly distressed and in