The late Mr. Brown, leader of his Majesty’s band, used to tell several
stories of _Handel’s_ love of good cheer, liquid and solid, as well
as of his impatience: of the former he gave an instance, which was
accidentally discovered, at his own house, in Brook Street, where
Brown, in the Oratorio Season, among other principal performers, was
at dinner. During the repast, _Handel_ often cried out——“O, I have de
taught, (thought),” when the company, unwilling that, out of civility
to them, the public should be robbed of any thing so valuable as his
musical ideas, begged he would retire and write them down; with which
request, however, he so frequently complied, that, at last, one of
the most suspicious had the ill-bred curiosity to peep through the
key-hole, into the adjoining room, where he perceived that _dese
taughts_ were only bestowed on a fresh hamper of Burgundy, which,
as was afterwards discovered, he had received in a present from his
friend, the late Earl of Radnor, while his company was regaled with
more generous and spirited port.
_Burney’s Life of Handel._