The Angel Inn the Anglo-Irish actress Dorothea Jordan (1761–1816), who became the mistress and companion of the future King William IV. Thornton was "a man with flair but with no eye for detail [and] little patience with learning lines, a habit which spread to members of his company." James Winston, in his "The Theatric Tourist" (1805), relates how, just before one performance at Andover, Thornton noticed someone in the audience holding a copy of that evening's play. Winston writes: "With such a potent evidence of their incorrectness, it was impossible to proceed..." Thornton announced that the performance was cancelled, owing to the troupe's
Dorothea Beale age of thirteen partly at home and partly at a school at Stratford, Essex, Dorothea then attended lectures at Gresham College and at the Crosby Hall Literary Institution, and developed an aptitude for mathematics. In 1847, she and two older sisters began attending Mrs. Bray's fashionable school for English girls in Paris, where Dorothea remained till the revolution of 1848 closed the school. Dorothea and her sisters then were among the earliest students at the newly opened Queen's College, Harley Street. Their companions included Miss Buss and Adelaide Procter. In 1849, Miss Beale was appointed mathematical tutor at Queen's College,