A Peculiar Family

A Peculiar Family is an 1865 comedy play written by the English writer William Brough, featuring music by Thomas German Reed and starring German Reed, his wife Priscilla German Reed and John Parry.^[1] It premiered at the German Reeds' London theatre, the Royal Gallery of Illustration, on 15 March 1865.^[2] A Peculiar Family is part of the series known as the German Reed Entertainments.

The play is set at a hotel on the coast of France, where an English family have recently arrived on a steamship. The family features Barnaby Bounce and two of his nephews, Felix Flitter and Phoeble Bounce – all three of whom were played by Thomas German Reed – as well as a grandfather, played by Parry. Priscilla German Reed plays the landlady of the hotel, as well as Barnaby's sister, Cherry Bounce, and a countess.^[3] The play then features a German detective officer, Herr Von Doppelslich (also played by Parry), working for the area's police. Von Doppelslich is investigating a crime committed by an individual with an unusual hat, and is talking to the landlady when Barnaby arrives, wearing a white hat with a black rim. Barnaby claims that this hat was procured from a fellow passenger on the steamer, by mistake.^[1] The hat in question is then spotted by the countess, who was involved in a deal with its true owner, taking a sheet of paper from the hat and replacing it with money. Barnaby then discards the hat, and it is passed around the members of the family until one of the nephews finds the money and keeps it. The hat's real owner later appears and takes back his hat, returning to England without being apprehended by Von Doppelslich.^[4]