in which he played Friday to Charles Farley's title character. Grimaldi conducted a remunerative but gruelling tour to Scotland, Manchester and Liverpool in 1818. He sustained bruising and strains from two falls, the second of which left him briefly unable to walk. He and Mary moved to 56 Exmouth Market, Islington, where he recovered from his injuries before going on tour with his son. At Easter 1819, in The Talking Bird, or, Perizade Columbine, he introduced perhaps his best known song "Hot Codlins", an audience participation song about a seller of roasted apples who gets drunk on gin while working the streets of London. Songs about trades were popular on the stage in the 1800s. Grimaldi sought inspiration for the character of the apple seller by walking around the streets of London and observing real-life tradespeople. Despite Signor Paulo's success at Sadler's Wells, Richard Hughes's widow Lucy, who was a majority shareholder at the theatre, pleaded with Grimaldi to return. He agreed on the conditions that he was sold an eighth share in the theatre, remained the resident Clown and received a salary of 12 guineas a week. She agreed to his terms, and he took the part of Grimaldicat in the 1818 Easter pantomime The Marquis De Carabas; or, Puss in Boots. The show was a disaster and closed after one night. Grimaldi was booed off the stage after an impromptu joke (eating a prop mouse) upset the audience and caused two female audience members to fight in the auditorium. The audience was also angry at Grimaldi's weak performance; later he felt that this marked the beginning of his career's decline. Dibdin left Sadler's Wells that year; his fortunes changed rapidly for the worse, and he spent time in a debtors' prison. Grimaldi's debut as a theatre proprietor was also a failure. Although Jack Bologna, Mary, JS and Bologna's wife Louisa were all cast in Grimaldi's only commissioned pantomime, The Fates; or, Harlequin's Holy Day, he had underestimated the amount of work required to run a theatre, and the strain of management hastened the already rapid deterioration in his health. The shares in Sadler's Wells were sold, with Grimaldi's going to Daniel Egerton. Egerton wanted to keep Grimaldi on the payroll but proposed loaning him to other theatres. Grimaldi refused a contract on these terms and instead appeared alongside JS in a few engagements in Ireland. During the Easter