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Scan 228
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 214. See the scan on archive.org.
1its fabricator died at Brampton in 1801. William the second, the maker who gave such renown to the name, was taught the same professions by his father and is known in the trade as "old" Forster. He also played the violin at merry makings; he was celebrated for his performance of Scotch reels, and, indeed, composed and published some. It is supposed that he left Brampton about 1759, when he was twenty-one years of age. He started southwards without any money, and had to engage himself to a cattle drover, in order to sustain himself during his journey to London. He first went to the Commercial-road East, or its neighbourhood, but found no employment there at spinning-wheel making, and at length took to the manufacture of gun stocks, and occasionally made violins for the music shops. He appears to have suffered great privations at this period. He ultimately found permanent employment with a violin maker in Tower Hill, named Beck, where he was successful, his violins selling off rapidly. He requested higher remuneration, and was refused. He then left Beck, and removed, in 1762, to Duke's-court, St. Martin's-lane, a portion of whose site is now occupied by the National Gallery. There he began to grow famous, one of his chief patrons at this time being a Colonel West, to whose kindness he always referred his first genuine success. Between 1762 and 1782 he became also a music publisher, and during this period he used as a label a portion of the title page of some work which he had published, and which perhaps had not been successful. It is to be observed chiefly in violoncellos, in a written character, with ornamental scrolls engraved through
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