The next role that Barrington created was Archibald Grosvenor in "Patience" (1881). Casting the large Barrington as the "perfect" and "infallible" incarnation of manly beauty mirrored a joke in Gilbert's earlier "A Sensation Novel", in which he cast the large, ungainly Corney Grain, in a similar role. This was followed by the role of Earl Mountararat in "Iolanthe" (1882; he also appeared in Margate, Kent in an 1882 Christmas pantomime of "Robin Hood" written by George Thorne), and King Hildebrand in "Princess Ida" (1884). This role was Barrington's least favourite of the series, and he attributed "Ida"'s relatively short run, at least in part, to the lack of prominence of this role in the opera. During the run of "Princess Ida", a comedy written by Barrington and called "Bartonmere Towers" was first presented at a matinee.