, Handel waited on Lord
Kinnoul, with whom he was particularly acquainted. His Lordship, as was
natural, paid him some compliments on the noble _entertainment_ which he
had lately given in the town. "My Lord, said Handel, I should be sorry
if I _only entertained them_, I wish TO MAKE THEM BETTER."

The Messiah has remained the most popular of Oratorios. It is never
announced in anything like a fitting manner without attracting the
public. It invariably forms part of the programme at all the festivals,
and the day on which it is performed is always the most productive. The
Sacred Harmonic Societies particularly give it every year for the
benefit of distressed musicians. Truly does it deserve the touching
eulogy that "it has fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and fostered the
orphans."

But I must hasten to a conclusion. Before I conclude this sketch of
Handel, I must introduce you to one more of his Oratorios, "L'Allegro."

This magnificent composition has been eulogized by an eminent poet,--a
beautiful pigeon! and an old parson! I will briefly tell you the eulogy
of each, for brief is the eulogy itself.

The Poet having heard the oratorio performed, wrote thus:--

"If e'er Arion's music calm'd the floods
And Orpheus ever drew the dancing woods!
Why do not British trees and forest throng
To hear the sweeter notes of Handel's song?
This does the falsehood of the fable prove--
Or seas and woods when Handel harps would move."

THE PIGEON.--"Let me wander not unseen," is considered one of Handel's
finest inspirations. Hawkins says, "Of the air, the late Mr. John
Lockman relates the following story, assuring his reader, that himself
was an eye-witness to it," viz:--

"When at the house of Mr. Lee, a gentleman in Cheshire, whose daughter
was a very fine performer on the harpsichord, he saw a pigeon which,
whenever the young lady played this song, and _this only_, would fly
from an adjacent dove-house to the window in the parlour where she sat,
and listen to it with the most pleasing emotions, and the instant the
song was over would fly away to her dove-house."[G]

THE PARSON, old Dr. Delaney, F.T.C.D. once heard at the opera a lady[H]
sing this song. He was so captivated and excited that he could not
control himself, but standing up in front of his box exclaimed,

"Oh! woman, for this be all thy sins forgiven!"

Now I do not know whether there is a poet present, or a pigeon, but
there is an