Some wag wrote the following catch, which Dr. Callcott set to music:--
"Have you read Sir John Hawkins's History? Some folks think it quite a
mystery; Both I have, and I aver That Burney's History I prefer."
_Burn his History_ was straightway in every one's mouth; and the
bookseller, if he did not follow the advice _a pied de la lettre_,
actually wasted, as the term is, or sold for waste paper, some hundred
copies, and buried the rest of the impression in the profoundest depth of
a damp cellar, as an article never likely to be called for, so that now
hardly a copy can be procured undamaged by damp and mildew. It has been
for some time, however, rising,--is rising,--and the more it is read and
known, the more it ought to rise in public estimation and
demand.--_Harmonicon_.
* * * * *
ITALIAN, AT THE KING'S THEATRE.
A Liberal and sensible correspondent of the _Harmonicon_ writes thus:
Mrs. Wood is not the first of our countrywomen who has attained the same
rank; the names of Billington, Cecilia Davies (called _Inglesina_,) and in
remoter times, that of Anastasia Robinson, (afterwards Countess of
Peterborough,) will immediately occur to the musical reader; but, with the
exception of the latter, who lived at a time when the Italian opera in
England was in its infancy, Mrs.
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