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STABLE BOY, POET AND DRAMATIST The famous English dramatist Thomas Holcroft, who, born in London in 1745, was for three years a Newmarket racing stable-boy. He was also peddler, shoemaker and schoolmaster before he became a strolling player in 1770. He then took to play-writing and was the first to introduce the melodrama as we know it into England. His "Road to Ruin," writecn in 1792, brought him in 1,300 pounds, almost a fabulous sunt for one play in those days, and is still revived occasionally.
