Well, alright then, the headline may be just a tad misleading. Actually my purpose is to remind you that a PC can be used to retrieve all sorts of information. Virtually any topic you can think of will be covered to a greater or lesser extent, and HI’s milieu is no exception. We know, for example, that if you have access to the internet and key in www.theirvingsociety.org.uk then you will be taken to the web-site of our own society. Guess where www.mander-and-mitchenson.co.uk will take you? Sadly it is no more than an amuse-gueule at present, and HI is not one of the ingredients. But there are lots more web-sites. The secret is in knowing where to look.

One way of exploring is to use a search engine. This enables you to enter a key word or two, and the program then goes off into the internet and quickly ferrets through the hundreds of thousands (probably millions) of web-sites in search of those containing something which might be relevant. But, just to complicate matters, there are numerous search engines and, for technical reasons, each of them will produce a slightly differing subset of suggestions. This can be solved by using a super-search engine program such as can be found at www.google.com (it’s free!). This program is very fast, although personally I prefer an alternative called Copernic 2000 Pro (www.Copernic.com). It will automatically run perhaps a dozen search engines and can give a vast number of possible sources.

It’s best explained by illustration. When I keyed in the words ‘Henry Irving’ recently, for example, Copernic gave me a catalogue of sites on the internet which it thought might be appropriate. I decided to stop the search when it had listed a hundred. Some web-sites are listed more than once, although the program does its best to eliminate duplicates. Some could be ignored immediately, because they weren’t about our’ HI. Yes, there are several folk in the western world bearing the famous name and some of them have their own web-sites! Also, my knowledge of eastern european languages is decidedly limited (i.e. non-existent) so I couldn’t read the pages of information some web-sites contained. Interestingly, however, some of these appeared to be about our own man. After much editing and investigation, I finished up with a rump of twenty internet web-sites which seemed most relevant. For instance there were several sites containing potted biographies. including the one from Encyclopaedia Britannica, at www.britannica.com/seo/s/sir-henry-irving . Others had those illustrations of HI in various roles, which most of us are familiar with. There are bibliographies too. In short, plenty of interesting material.

Entering the keywords ‘Ellen Terry’ resulted in a similarly long list. But again the first hundred apparently relevant web-sites was quickly whittled down, to nineteen. There is a real-estate agent in Florida named Ellen Terry, who obviously publicises heavily on the internet to obtain business! However there was information from Coventry, and on Smallhythe, and illlustrations again. One intriguing web-site was that of a spiritualist. Try www.xs4all.nl/wichm/deathnoe.html where, if your PC has the capability, you can listen to a voice purported to be that of our Ellen Terry. Hmmm!

Trying to use the single word Lyceum, was less successful. Of the fifty-seven results, only two were remotely relevant. One gave information about the current theatrical offering in Wellington Street. The other, at http://ut.essortment.com/royallyceumthe_relu.htm was a thousand word essay about HI and ET at the Lyceum. Can it be true that Ellen habitually startled HI by sliding down the banisters from her dressing room? I wonder.

Following up all the internet postings related to Bram Stoke could be a most dispiriting pastime. However at www.jillmorgan.com/sig/stoker.htm there was a copy of a short letter from HI, actually written by BS on his behalf but signed by HI.

Trawling through all the entries for William Terriss produced many genuine possibilities. I hadn’t known that there is a lifeboat at Eastbourne named after him. On one of the pages at www.mystical-www.co.uk/ghost/zsee.htm there was a discussion of the Maiden Lane ghost.

So there is already quite a body of interesting data to browse through on the internet. I would be delighted to hear from anyone who can recommend additional web-site addresses with a view, perhaps, to publishing brief reviews at some time in the future, subject naturally to our Editor’s approval ...