and Shield should hold a like scroll, only on it should be written the
first bars of
A flaxen-headed ploughboy.
'He was fond of telling a story of Handel, which I, at least, have never
seen in print. When Handel was blind he composed his "Samson," in which
there is that most touching of all songs, specially to any one whose
powers of sight are waning--"Total Eclipse." Mr. Beard was the great
tenor singer of the day, who was to sing this song. Handel sent for him,
"Mr. Beard," he said, "I cannot sing it as it should be sung, but I can
tell you how it ought to be sung." And then he sang it, with what
strange pathos need not be told. Beard stood listening, and when it was
finished said, with tears in his eyes, "But Mr. Handel, I can never sing
it like that." And so he would tell the story with tears in his voice,
such as those best remember, who ever heard him read some piece of his
dear old Crabbe, and break down in the reading.'
With this I will conclude, and I have only now to express my sincere
thanks to all who have entrusted me with letters addressed to themselves
or to those whom they represent. It has been my endeavour to justify
their confidence by discretion. To Messrs. Richard Bentley and Son I am
indebted for permission to reprint Virgil's Garden from the Temple Bar
Magazine. {0a}
The portrait is from a photograph by Cade and White of Ipswich taken in
1873.