“TO SAMUEL CRISP, ESQ.
“_Chesington, Kingston, Surrey._
“Let me now try, my dear Mr. Crisp, if I cannot have the pleasure
to make you dolorously repent your inexorability to coming to town.
We have had such sweet music!—But let me begin with the company,
according to your orders.
“They all arrived early, and staid the whole evening.
“The Baron de Deiden, the Danish ambassador.
“The Baroness, his wife; a sweet woman, indeed; young, pretty,
accomplished, and graceful. She is reckoned the finest _dilletante_
performer on the piano-forte in Europe.
“I might be contented, you will perhaps say, to have given her this
precedence in England and in Denmark; _i.e._ in her own country and in
our’s: but Europe sounds more noble!
“The Honourable Miss Phipps, who came with her, or rather, I believe,
was brought by her, for they are great friends; and Miss Phipps had
already been with us in Queen-square. Miss Phipps is a daughter of Lord
Mulgrave, and sister to the famous Polar captain. She seems full of
spirit and taste.
“Sir James and Lady Lake; Sir Thomas Clarges; Mrs. and Miss Ord; and
a good many others, agreeable enough, though too tedious to mention,
having nothing either striking or odd in them. But the pride of the
evening, as neither you, my dear Mr. Crisp, nor Mr. Twining, could be
with us, was Mr. HARRIS, _of Salisbury_, author of the three treatises
on Poetry, Music, and Painting; Philosophical Arrangements; Hermes, &c.
He brought with him Mrs. Harris, and his second daughter, Miss Louisa,
a distinguished lady-musician. Miss Harris,[2] the eldest, a
cultivated and high-bred character, is, I believe, with her brother,
our minister at Petersburgh.
“Hettina,[3] Mr. Burney, and our noble selves, bring up the rear.
“There was a great deal of conversation previous to the music. But as
the party was too large for a general _chatterment_, every body that
had not courage to stroll about and please themselves, was obliged to
take up with their next neighbour. What think you, then, of my good
fortune, when I tell you I happened to sit by Mr. Harris? and that
that so happening, joined to my being at home,—however otherwise
insignificant,—gave me the intrepidity to abandon my yea and nay
responses, when he was so good as to try whether I could make any
other. His looks, indeed, are so full of benignity, as well as of
meaning and understanding; and his manners have a suavity so gentle, so
encouraging, that, notwithstanding his high name as an author, all fear
from his renown was wholly whisked away by delight in his discourse and
his countenance.
“My father was in excellent spirits, and walked about from one to
another, giving pleasure to all whom he addressed.
“As we had no violins, basses, flutes, &c., we were forced to cut short
the formality of any overture, and to commence by the harp. Mr. Jones
had a very sweet instrument, with new pedals, constructed by Merlin. He
plays very well, and with very neat execution.
“Mr. Burney, then, at the request of the Baroness de Deiden, went to
the harpsichord, where he fired away with his usual genius. He first
played a Concerto of Schobert’s; and then, as the Baroness would not
let him rise, another of my father’s.
“When Mr. Burney had received _the compliments of the nobility and
gentry_, my father solicited the Baroness to take his place.
“‘O no!’ she cried, ‘I cannot hear of such a thing! It is out of
the question! It would be a figurante to dance a _pas seul_ after
Mademoiselle Heinel.’
“However, her animated friend, Miss Phipps, joined so earnestly with
my father in entreaty, that, as the Baron looked strongly his sanction
to their wishes, she was prevailed upon to yield; which she did
most gracefully; and she then played a difficult lesson of Schobert’s
remarkably well, with as much meaning as execution. She is, besides, so
modest, so unassuming, and so pretty, that she was the general object
of admiration.
“When my father went to thank her, she said she had never been so
frightened before in her life.
“My father then begged another German composition from her, which he
had heard her play at Lord Mulgrave’s. She was going, most obligingly,
to comply, when the Baron, in a half whisper, and pointing to my sister
Burney, said; ‘_Après, ma chère!_’
“‘_Eh bien oui!_’ cried Miss Phipps, in a lively tone, ‘_après Madame_
Burney! come Mrs. Burney, pray indulge us.’
“The Baroness, with a pleased smile, most willingly made way; and your
Hettina, unaffectedly, though not quite unfluttered, took her seat; and
to avoid any air of emulation, with great propriety began with a slow
movement, as the Baroness had played a piece of execution.
“For this purpose, she chose your favourite bit of Echard; and I never
heard her play it better, if so well. Merlin’s new pedals made it
exquisite; and the expression, feeling, and taste with which she
performed it, raised a general murmur of applause.
“Mr. Harris inquired eagerly the name of the composer. Every body
seemed to be struck, nay enchanted: and charmed into such silence of
attention, that if a pin had dropt, it would have caused a universal
start.
“I should be ashamed not to give you a more noble metaphor, or simile,
or comparison, than a pin; only I know how cheap you hold all attempts
at fine writing; and that you will like my poor simple pin, just as
well as if I had stunned you with a cannon ball.
“Miss Louisa Harris then consented to vary the entertainment by
singing. She was accompanied by Mr. Harris, whose soul seems all music,
though he has made his pen amass so many other subjects into the
bargain. She has very little voice, either for sound or compass; yet,
which is wonderful, she gave us all extreme pleasure; for she sings in
so high a style, with such pure taste, such native feeling, and such
acquired knowledge of music, that there is not one fine voice in a
hundred I could listen to with equal satisfaction. She gave us an
unpublished air of Sacchini’s, introduced by some noble recitative
of that delicious composer.
“She declared, however, she should have been less frightened to have
sung at a theatre, than to such an audience. But she was prevailed with
to give us, afterwards, a sweet flowing rondeau of Rauzzini’s, from his
opera of Piramis and Thisbe. She is extremely unaffected and agreeable.
“Then followed what my father called the great gun of the evening,
Müthel’s duet for two harpsichords; which my father thinks the noblest
composition of its kind in the world.
“Mr. Burney and the Hettina now came off with flying colours indeed;
nothing could exceed the general approbation. Mr. Harris was in an
ecstacy that played over all his fine features; Sir James Lake, who is
taciturn and cold, was surprised even into loquacity in its praise;
Lady Lake, more prone to be pleased, was delighted to rapture; the
fine physiognomy of Miss Phipps, was lighted up to an animation quite
enlivening to behold; and the sweet Baroness de Deiden, repeatedly
protested she had never been at so singularly agreeable a concert
before.
“She would not listen to any entreaty, however, to play again;
and all instrumental music was voted to be out of the question for that
night. Miss Louisa Harris then, with great good breeding, as well as
good nature, was won by a general call to give us a finale, in a fine
bravura air of Sacchini’s, which she sung extremely well, though under
evident and real affright.
“There was then a good deal of chat, very gay and pleasing; after which
the company went away, in all appearance, uncommonly gratified: and we
who remained at home, were, in all reality, the same.
“But how we wished for our dear Mr. Crisp! Do pray, now, leave your
gout to itself, and come to our next music meeting. Or if it needs must
cling to you, and come also, who knows but that music, which has
“‘Charms to sooth the savage breast,
To soften rocks, and bend a knotted oak—’
may have charms also, To soften Gout, and _Un_bend Knotted Fingers?”
* * * * *
Previously to any further perusal of these juvenile narrations, it
is necessary to premise, that there were, at this period, three of
the most excelling singers that ever exerted rival powers at the same
epoch, who equally and earnestly sought the acquaintance and suffrage
of Dr. Burney; namely,
Miss Cecilia Davies, detta l’Inglesina,
La Signora Agujari, detta la Bastardella,
And the far-famed Signora Gabrielli.