During a visit which, at this time, Dr. Burney made to his old friends
and connexions in Norfolk, he spent a week or two with his truly-loved
and warmly-admired favourite, Mr. Bewley, of Massingham; whose deep
theoretical knowledge of the science, and passion for the art of music,
made, now, a sojourn under his roof as useful to the work of the
Doctor, as, at all periods, it had been delightful to his feelings.
Of this visit, which took place immediately after one that had
been fatiguingly irksome from stately ceremony, he speaks, in his
chronological rhymes, in the following manner.
To Bewley retiring, in peace and in quiet,
Where our[44] welcome was hearty, and simple our diet;
Where reason and science all jargon disdain’d,
And humour and wit with philosophy reign’d—
Not a muse but was ready to answer his call;
By the virtues all cherish’d, the great and the small.
There Clio I court, to reveal every mystery
Of musical lore, with its practice and history.
Mr. Bewley, now, was the principal writer for scientific articles in
the Monthly Review, under the editorship of Mr. Griffith. He was, also,
in close literary connexion with Dr. Priestley, Mr. Reid, and Padre
Beccaria; with whom to correspond he had latterly dedicated some weeks
exclusively to the study of Italian, that he might answer the letters
of that celebrated man in his own language.
In company with this learned and dear friend, Dr. Burney afterwards
passed a week at Haughton Hall, with the Earl of Orford, who
invariably received him with cordial pleasure; and who had the manly
understanding, combined with the classical taste, always to welcome
with marked distinction the erudite philosopher of Massingham; though
that obscure philosopher was simply, in his profession, a poor and
hard-working country surgeon; and though, in his habits, partly from
frugal necessity, and partly from negligent indifference, he was the
man the most miserably and meanly accoutred, and withal the most
slovenly, of any who had ever found his way into high society.
Lord Orford, with almost unexampled liberality, was decidedly blind
to all these exterior imperfections; and only clear-sighted, for this
gifted man of mind, to the genius that, at times, in the arch meaning
of his smile, sparkled knowledge from his eye, with an intelligent
expression that brightened into agreeability his whole queer face.
And to call into play those rugged features, beneath which lurked the
deepest information, and the most enlightened powers of entertainment,
was the pleasure of the noble host; a distinction which saved this
unknown and humble country practitioner from the stares, or the
ridicule, of all new-arrived guests; though secretly, no doubt, they
marvelled enough who he could be; and still more how he came there.