CUTTING THE CAKE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue 9308, 5 March 1907, Page 3

CUTTING THE CAKE.

HISTORIC SCENE AFTER DRURY LANE PANTOMIME.

fne historic cutting of the Baddeley Lake took place in the saloon of Drury I*ane Theatre arecently, aftea 1 the performance of "SLnbad."

Mr Hkrry Nicholls, as masteir of the Drary Lane Fund, before cutting the cake, explained the origin of the ancieait custom; how, in the yeax 1794, one Robert Baddeley^ an actor and a member of the Drury Lane Stock Company, left the sum of £100 to be invested in Consols to form a Drury Lane Fund to supply each. Twelfth Night a cake and a .bunch for the benefit of the principals of the theatre in what was then known as tne Green Room.

The first record, oi the ceremony taking place is as far back as 1796, and it has since been kept up without a break.