Scan 349
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
4 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1ment for 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 enquiries 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. Little did Festing and his supporters dream that their society, humble enough in 1738, would grow into a society possessing £80,000 in 1874, a sum which, however high sounding, is yet insufficient to permit the committee to dispense the full amount of good desired.
3Returning again to our subject, we find that in Festing's life-time there were several patrons of the art, the chief of whom were the Prince of Wales, the
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.