eiving, like the servant-maid in the _Spectator_, that the music
lay in the Fiddle, he was frantic until he possessed the very
instrument which had given him so much pleasure--but seemed much
surprised that the music of it remained behind with Giardini. He had
scarcely recovered this shock (for it was a great one to _him_) when
he heard Abel on the Viol da Gamba. The Violin was hung on the willow;
Abel's Viol da Gamba was purchased, and the house resounded with
melodious thirds and fifths from 'morn to dewy eve!' Many an Adagio
and many a Minuet were begun, but none completed; this was wonderful,
as it was Abel's _own_ instrument, and, therefore, _ought_ to have
produced Abel's own music!

"Fortunately my friend's passion had now a fresh object--Fischer's
Hautboy[11]--but I do not recollect that he deprived Fischer of his
instrument; and though he procured a Hautboy, I never heard him make
the least attempt on it. The next time I saw Gainsborough it was in
the character of King David. He had heard a Harper at Bath--the
performer was soon Harpless--and now Fischer, Abel, and Giardini were
all forgotten--there was nothing like chords and arpeggios! He really
stuck to the Harp long enough to play several airs with variations,
and would nearly have exhausted all the pieces usually performed on an
instrument incapable of modulation (this was not a pedal Harp), when
another visit from Abel brought him back to the Viol da Gamba. He now
saw the imperfection of sudden sounds that instantly die away--if you
wanted staccato, it was to be had by a proper management of the bow,
and you might also have notes as long as you please. The Viol da Gamba
is the only instrument, and Abel the prince of musicians! This, and
occasionally a little flirtation with the Fiddle, continued some
years; when, as ill-luck would have it, he heard Crosdill, but by some
irregularity of conduct he neither took up nor bought the Violoncello.
All his passion for the Bass was vented in descriptions of Crosdill's
tone and bowing."

[Footnote 11: Fischer was a celebrated Oboe-player. He made his first
appearance in London in 1768. Gainsborough painted two portraits of
him, one of which is at Hampton Court.]

Gainsborough's fondness for fresh instruments is alluded to by Philip
Thicknesse, who says that during his residence at Bath, Gainsborough
offered him one hundred guineas for a Viol da Gamba, dated 1612. His
offer was declined, but it was ultimately agre