During his stay at Bath Gainsborough devoted much of his time and energy to music; he acquired many musical instruments of various kinds, and tried his hand at all of them. The viol da gamba was apparently his favourite, and in one of his letters to his friend Jackson of Exeter he mentions that he possesses five of these instruments. He heard Giardini, the then unrivalled violinist, and had no rest till he purchased the very instrument that the Italian played on, "but," says Jackson, "seemed much surprised that the music remained with Giardini." In the same way he acquired Abel's viol da gamba; having heard Fischer, he bought a hautboy, then suddenly developed enthusiasm for the harp, and thus passing from instrument to instrument he never had the perseverance to play any one of them with any degree of perfection. In this connection Jackson relates an amusing anecdote of one of his most extravagant acquisitions: "Upon seeing a theorbo in a picture of Van Dyck's he concluded (perhaps because it was finely painted) that the theorbo must be a fine instrument. He recollected to have heard of a German professor, and ascending _per varios gradus_ to his garret, found him there at dinner upon a roasted apple, and smoking a pipe. 'I am come,' says he, 'to buy your lute. Come, name your price, and here is your money.' 'I cannot shell my lude!' 'No; not for a guinea or two, but by G-- you must sell it.' 'My lude ish wert much monnay! It ish wert ten guineas.' 'That it is. See, here is the money!' 'Well, if I musht; but you will not take it away yourself!' 'Yes, yes. Good-bye----' (After he had gone down he came up again.) 'I have done but half my errand. What is your lute worth if I have not your book?' 'Whad poog, Maishter Cainsporough?' 'Why, the book of airs you have composed for the lute.' 'Ah, py Cot, I can never part wit my poog!' PLATE V.--THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM This portrait of the Hon. Mary Graham (second daughter of Charles, ninth Lord Cathcart) is in the National Gallery of Scotland. Another portrait of the same lady shown in the dress of a housemaid, standing in a doorway with a broom, is supposed to be a rejected design for this picture, and is in the collection of the Earl of Carlisle. Her husband afterwards became Lord Lynedoch. This picture was painted in 1775-1776, was locked up in a London store for fifty years, but fortunately recovered. [Illustration: PLATE V.--THE HON. MRS. GRAHAM] 'Pooh! you can make another at any time. This is the book I mean' (putting it in his pocket). 'Ah, py Cot, I cannot!'