Hall. They came in procession into the city in exactly the same order, and with equal splendour, as at Whitehall."* The masques were the preludes to operas. Pope says "The Siege of Rhodes" was the first opera sung in England, 1656, at Rutland House, got up by Sir. William Davenant. In 1692 there was an advertisement in the London Gazette announcing "an Italian lady that is come over, and is so famous a singer that she will sing at York Buildings on the 10th of January, and during the season." In 1702 a concert of Italian singers, in York Buildings, lately come from Rome. They progressed by slow degrees, in the form of intermezzi or Italian interludes, made up of singing and dancing. It next appeared in a mixed state-the music Italian, the text translated. In 1707 an entire opera, in which Urbani (a male soprano) and two foreign women sang in Italian, while the other parts were sung in English words. In 1710, all prejudices having evaporated, " Almahide," wholly in Italian, and performed by foreign singers only, was successfully brought out at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket. This success led afterward to the introduction of Handel. Spring Gardens, afterward Vauxhall, a place for singing English operas and dancing on summer evenings in the open air, was visited by Evelyn in 1661. Ranelagh, on the Westminster side of the Thames, for the high nobility, began about 1742 as a sort of rival to Vauxhall. The first regular series of concerts was under the academy of ancient music, in 1710. Sadler's Wells began at the close of the seventeenth century, by a person named Sadler: after him it was continued by Francis Foster. Scenic representations, with water, music, singing, and dancing, are exhibited there. It is commonly stated that the first English concert was began by Thomas Britton, who supported himself by keeping a coal cellar. He died in 1714. It was, I presume only a revival. There were music clubs, or private meetings for the practice of music, which were very fashionable with people of opulence. In "The Citizen turned Gentleman," a comedy by Edward Ravenscroft, 1675, the citizen is told that, in order to appear like a person of consequence, it was necessary he should "have a music club once a week at his own house." The first two persons of any musical education were Reinhold and Beard, in Handel's time, (reign of George I.) * Whitlock's Memoirs. APPENDIX. "E PLURIBUS UNUN." No. I.--SETTLEMENT OF THE STATES OF U. S. 311 Those colonies which are now called British, began as follows: 1583 Newfoundland. 1623 Nova Scotia. 1630 New Brunswick. 1670 Hudson's Bay and North West Territory. 1758 Cape Breton. 1759 Upper and Lower Canada. No. II.-PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS, FROM 1603 TO 1702. Text, p. 25% died 1606 do 1617 Subjects. History, Miniature portraits, History, portraits, and landscapes, History and miniature portraits, Engraved portraits and various subjects, History and portraits, Engraved portraits. History, portraits, and landscapes, Engraved portraits. Engraved history and portraits, Portraits, Joseph Highmore, do do 1780 History and portraits, do do 1764 History and humorous subjects. do died 1784 born 1710 James McArdel, Ireland, Painted and engrd. portraits and landscapes, Jonathan Richardson. Portraits, died 1765 History and portraits. * Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, 2 vols., 1816, No. III.-POPULATION. Text, p. 13. Colqhuon, in his Essays, states: " A survey of the people was made in the reign of Henry VIII., but the account is lost." Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," refers to Bede, Leland, and some others, for a large population in former times. No. IV. PROVISIONS AND LABOUR. Text, p. 17. From the reign of Elizabeth, when, in the language of various writers, " ingenuities began to flourish in England," to the accession of Charles II., 1660, few improvements of much moment took place in the common arts of life. In agriculture, gardening, and manufactures England was surpassed by several other countries, particularly by Holland and the Netherlands. These were the most industrious countries in Europe, and their population had been longer trained in those habits of order which are essential to commercial and manufacturing pre-eminence. The writers complain, on the contrary, of the working population of England as " idle, stubborn, and surly;" and it would appear that they disliked habits of continued labour. As they could live easily, this was likely; and that, as a poet of the time, in speaking of their habits, writes, "The sum of all their vanity to deck, With some bright bell, some fav'rite heifer's neck," is equally as likely when they went rush-gathering, or upon some other social customary frolic. Hence they were less skilful and ingenious than the artisans of other countries; and the manufactories were neither so well finished nor, in many places, so cheap as theirs; although at this period provisions were as low, or perhaps lower, in price there than on the continent. A paper published 1651, on the state and condition of things between the English and Dutch nations, says: "The price of labour depending much upon the price of victuals, house rent, and other necessaries, it is certain (especially to any who know both countries) that all this is much cheaper with us than with our neighbours, and is likely so to be." Great encouragement was given to aliens who brought "new and profitable trades into use," or who instructed people therein. The following extract. from "Ancient Trades Decayed," published in 1677, will perhaps be interesting to those readers of the present day who have a practical knowledge of the woollen manufacture. It is there stated that 66 every two pounds of wool, which is worth about twenty pence, will make a yard of kersey, worth about five or six shillings; and every four pounds of wool, worth about three shillings and four pence, will make a yard of broadcloth, worth eleven or twelve shillings." From inquiries which I have recently made, I suppose not half the quantity is now used. No. V. Cobbett says, "Hogs differ so much in their propensity to fatten, that it is difficult to calculate about them: but this is a very good rule: When you see a fat hog, and know how many scores (20lbs.) he will weigh, set down to his account a sack (half a quarter, or four bushels) of barley for every score of his weight; for, let him have been educated (as the French call it) as he may, this will be about the real cost of him when he is fat. A sack of barley will make a score of bacon, and it will not make more." The barley must be ground into meal; for barley whole will not feed a hog at all. I should like to see an experiment tried whether, bushel for bushel, the maize or Indian corn is better feed for hogs than English barley. The English barley, from the effects of that climate, is longer coming to maturity, and is, therefore, about ten pounds per bushel heavier than what is grown here. The trial, therefore, should be made there, or with English grown barley. There is no better pork in the world than American pork, which is fed on corn; and I know it will make good veal, for in the year 1836 there was slaughtered, by Mr. John Philips, in Clinton Market, a calf eight months old, weight six hundred pounds. It cost, alive, one hundred dollars: it was the fattest, the whitest, and the most delicate-looking veal ever seen, and which had never any more milk than what its mother gave it, with as much corn meal besides as it could eat. An experiment was tried some years past by an extensive coach proprietor, at Southampton, in England, whether the Indian corn was good feed for coach-horses, and it was found that, bulk for bulk, the horses did not stand their work so well as if they had been fed with horse beans. No. VI.-REVENUE. Estimates by Sir John Sinclair, Bart., of the peace establishment, since the revolution of 1688: do American war, 139,171,876 The armament that was to go to Nootka Sound against the Russians cost £311,385. |