xity of his precepts than for any
other reason.

In the days of Lord Chesterfield lived Michael Christian Festing, who
was particularly zealous in the cause of music. He was a pupil of
Geminiani, and wrote several solos. Festing still further carried out
the idea of Britton, the "small-coal man," by bringing together a
number of noblemen and gentlemen amateurs for the practice of
concerted music. They met at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the
Strand, and named their society the "Philharmonic." So much for his
furtherance of the art. It now remains to notice the great boon which
Festing conferred upon his brother professors and their descendants.
It is this which has given his memory lasting life in the annals of
English music.

We are indebted to Festing as the chief instrument in the formation of
the Royal Society of Musicians, which he may be said to have founded
in the year 1738. This society derived its origin from the following
curious circumstance. Festing being one day seated at the window of
the Orange Coffee House, then at the corner of the Haymarket, observed
a very intelligent-looking boy, who was driving an ass and selling
brickdust. The lad was in a deplorable condition, and excited the pity
of the kind-hearted musician, who made inquiries concerning him, and
discovered that he was the son of an unfortunate professor of music.
Struck with grief and mortification that the forlorn object before him
should be the child of a brother musician, Festing resolved to attempt
something for the boy's maintenance. Shortly after, with the help of
other benevolently-disposed persons, he raised a fund for the support
of decayed musicians and their families, and thus laid the foundation
of the society, which is the first of its kind in Europe. Handel was
one of its first and principal members, and left it a legacy of 1,000
pounds. Little did Festing and his supporters dream that their
society, humble enough in 1738, would grow into a society possessing
80,000 pounds in 1874--a sum which, however high-sounding, was
all-insufficient to permit the committee to dispense the amount of
good desired.

Returning again to our subject, we find that in Festing's lifetime
there were several patrons of the art, the chief of whom were the
Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cumberland, and the Earl of Mornington.
Speaking of the Earl, the Hon. Daines Barrington says he "furnishes an
instance of early attention to musical instruments. His f