than its very production. The Society for the Benefit of Decayed Musicians was, at that time, not only impoverished in its funds, but also indifferently patronized at its annual concerts. Arnold presented the copyright of the Cure of Saul to the Institution; its merits drew a numerous audience, and contributed in a striking degree to the re-establishment of an admirable charity. The prosperity of this production naturally led to other attempts of the same kind; and accordingly the oratorios of Abimelech, the Resurrection, and the Prodigal Son, which ranks as the masterpiece of its author, were issued before the musical public in fertile succession. With this stock he rented the right of giving sacred concerts at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket for some Lents successively, and found his talents respectably rewarded in the undertaking. He next embarked in the management of the same entertainments at Covent Garden, but was unfortunately disappointed in the advantages of the speculation. The rival establishment in Drury Lane was at that time powerfully supported by a more direct patronage from Court, and a consequent resort of fashion; no talent could withstand such competition; this second adventure failed, and Arnold was a considerable loser.

A little before this adventure, he published, in score, four sets of songs, composed for Vauxhall, of which many are still remembered for the ease with which they flowed, and the judicious combination effected in the instrumental symphonies. Arnold married in 1771; his wife, a lady of fortune, was the daughter of Archibald Napier, Doctor in Physic; and during the same year he became the purchaser of the Marybone Gardens. To add to the gaiety for which the spot was then so fashionably known, he erected a scenic stage, and composed for it several burlettas, which happily evinced the versatility of his powers, and gained an ample meed of favour. In these short but interesting pieces, many performers of particular note made their appearance, among whom may be particularised Miss Harper, afterwards Mrs. Banmister, Miss Catley, Reinhold, and Charles Bannister. Another novelty of his introduction at the same place, was a Signor Torré and his fireworks; and the curious in such exhibitions, have asserted that the ingenuity and splendour manifested in his displays, more especially in an ignition styled the Cave of Vulcan,

were greater than the country had before witnessed. The emoluments derived from these entertainments were soon destined to cease the lease expired in 1776, and the proprietors found it most advantageous to raise houses upon the site of lamp-lit arcades, and vocal bowers; and Marybone Gardens were covered over with an integral part of the metropolis.

But his most conspicuous honours awaited Arnold in the year 1773. At the ceremony performed in Oxford, when Lord North was instituted Chancellor of that University, Arnold was requested to permit his Prodigal Son to form a part of the festivity, while the poet Gray was invited to celebrate the installation by an ode. As a return for the politeness with which he assented to the request, and an acknowledgment for the talent exhibited in the oratorio, he was offered an honorary degree in the Theatre of the University, which, however conscious of his scientific attainments, he more honourably declined, at the same time that he begged leave to entitle himself to it by the usual academical course. In conformity with the statutes of the University, he therefore passed into the school-room, to stand an examination, and submit an exercise. For the subject of this he chose Hughes' Ode on the Power of Music. But the result was equally complimentary; for Doctor Hayes, the musical professor of the University, not only dispensed with the examination, but returned the score unopened, assuring him that it was unnecessary to scrutinize an exercise by the author of the Prodigal Son.

During this interval, Arnold still retained his post as musical composer at Covent Garden. Beard, his original supporter, had left the stage with a well earned competence; but his successor, George Colman the elder, was sufficiently convinced of Arnold's merit and popularity to make no change in his department. For the same reasons, when in 1776 Foote retreated from mimic life at the Haymarket, and Colman succeeded in obtaining a conti nuation of the patent, the Doctor was engaged to give to this new concern the aid of those services by which the old one had been so often benefited, and he continued to fill the office until he died.

By this time his reputation was happily established, and he had little reason to complain of neglect, whenever a vacancy presented itself which his attainments could supply. Thus, when in

1783, the situation of organist and composer at the Chapel Royal of St. James, was left unoccupied by the death of Dr. Nares, he was sworn into it on the 1st of March in the same year. Again, when the Commemoration of Handel in Westminster Abbey was determined on in 1784, he was complimented with the rank of a sub-director, and received a medal from the King as a mark of the approbation which his services on the occasion, and the magnificent success of the performance, deserved. Thus too, when in 1789 the subscribers to the Concerts of Ancient Music came to a resolution of putting their entertainments more authoritatively under the direction of a member of the profession, Dr. Arnold was elected to the honour by a large majority, though he had no less men than Drs. Cooke and Dupuis for his competitors. To this catalogue of appointments two others remain to be added; for Dr. Horsley without any solicitation, made him organist of Westminster Abbey in 1793; and in 1796 he was chosen conductor of the performances at St. Paul's Cathedral for the Annual Feast of the Sons of the Clergy.

During the succession of years here run over, Arnold formed the plan of an edition of the works of Handel. He began to publish it in parts, in 1786, and continued them down to the hundred and eighteenth number, in which are included all the compositions by that superior man, his Italian operas alone excepted. This task, certainly one of no ordinary magnitude and merit, was highly patronized during the course of its execution; and must still be considered estimable, though it has been in a great measure superseded by the subsequent labours of Dr. Clarke. Nearly at the same time he also published three volumes of cathedral music, in scores, with a volume of accompaniments for

the

organ, which he intended should serve as a continuation of the greater work on the same subject by Dr. Boyce. These have never been adopted in the same number and with the same universality, which prove the standard excellence of the anthems they professed to succeed. If less powerfully sonorous, however, they are perhaps more agreeably musical, and now constitute no invaluable portion of variety in the service of the established church of England.

Though but a partial mention has been as yet made of the compositions by which he entertained the theatres, it may easily

be conjectured, that, during all this lapse of time, he must have added considerably to the number of his early productions in this style; and in point of fact, few men have so often contributed music to plays, operas, farces, and the other minor diversities of the stage. The list exceeds fifty pieces; but it may suffice to extract, as specimens of the musician's ability, the names of a few which are still known to "fret their hour upon the stage." Of these the most popular are, The Maid of the Mill, The Castle of Andalusia, The Agreeable Surprise, Inkle and Yarico, Gretna Green, The Surrender of Calais, and The Mountaineers. This bulk of various works might be still farther swelled by the titles of concertos, canzonets, glees, trios, and catches, instrumental lessons and religious services, in abundance;-but it is unnecessary. Such in brief were the offices of responsibility which Dr. Arnold held during his life, and such are the labours by which he hoped to claim commemoration when no more. He died at his house in Duke-street, Westminster, on the 22d of October, 1802, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on the 29th of the same month. His age was sixty-three; and his tomb was sunk in the north aisle, between the monuments of Croft and Purcell. The ceremony of his interment was respectably attended by a number of old and distinguished friends, and a throng of brother professors and musical acquaintances. The body was received at the grand entrance by the dean and officers of the church, headed by the precentor. The service of the day was then celebrated; after which the procession formed again, and proceeded round the aisles. A funeral service by Dr. Calcott was performed, and at last the coffin was lowered to the earth. Above the spot a tablet has been affixed, which represents a sickle severing a lyre, and tells the reader by what hands it came there, first in a prose epitaph, and afterwards in a poetic eulogy. They possess no marked novelty or merit, and therefore have neither of them been copied here.

FRANCIS ATTERBURY, D. D.

FRANCIS ATTERBURY, a prelate equally conspicuous in the history of politics, literature, and religion, was born during the year 1662, at Milton Keyes, near Newport Pagnell, Bucks, of which parish his father, a Doctor in Divinity, was rector. From Westminster School, where he made his first progress in classical education, he was elected a student of Christ's Church College, Oxford, and there obtained a rapid distinction for literary attainments and a poetical taste. In 1687 he graduated as M. A., and during the course of the same year, made his first essay in controversial writing, a style of composition which he subsequently cultivated to a considerable extent, and with no mean ability. The exertion was provoked by a work, entitled "Considerations on the Spirit of Martin Luther;" but neither this nor the answer to it were thought worthy of any greater reward than ephemeral notice and contingent oblivion. Something of a more lasting credit, however, attached itself to his name, soon after, in consequence of a conjecture that he assisted in the popular controversy which his pupil, the Hon. Charles Boyle, afterwards Earl of Orrery, maintained with Dr. Bentley, upon the subject of the epistles of Phalaris.

By this time, that acute restlessness of character for which his career became afterwards so remarkable, began to develope itself, and he complained rather vehemently to his father of the discontent in which he lived. To these remonstrances the old gentleman very appropriately replied by recommending a marriage into a family of interest, some bishop's or courtier's, adding that it was a good step to be taken with accomplishments, and a portion too. This profitable council was duly attended to; Francis soon after solicited and obtained the hand of Miss Osborne, a lady invested with every desirable qualification, for she was related to the Duke of Leeds, and possessed of marked