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Scan 319
the history of the violin, 1864
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 297. See the scan on archive.org.
1various merry-makings and other festivities of the locality. Report says he excelled in the performance of reels; and the elder branches of the surviving family know that in after years, when trying violins which had either been made or repaired, the owners would frequently request to have one of them played. He also composed several Scotch reels, some of which were published by himself, when it was the custom of each music establishment at Christmas time to bring out a book of dance-tunes for the new year.
3Whether it was ambition that first occasioned him to come to London in the hope of bettering his fortunes, or whether, as some persons say, it was an aversion of his parent to the female whom he loved, and who ultimately became his wife, that induced him to leave his native place, we are unable to say; the most probable cause may be the disrespect shown to the memory of his mother by the other parent marrying a second wife only four months after the death of the first. The time of his leaving Brampton is not known; but if the above suppositions be correct, then it would be about 1759, he being between twenty and twenty-one years of age; whatever the irritating cause may have been, it must have been felt most acutely, as he left with little or no pecuniary resources, and engaged himself to a drover to assist in bringing cattle to the south.
5The neighbourhood of the Commercial Road and Prescott Street, Goodman's Fields, is said to be the first locality he resided in; and, not being able to get employment in either business which he had learned, he at length obtained work as a gun-stock maker, occasionally making violins and selling them to the music shops. The privations and sufferings endured during this period of his life he was always of opinion caused
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