At my introduction to this great man, I began a long complimental speech, which I had been some time studying.——“Most respectable sir, whose soul is a soul of harmony, and whose body is like a base-viol.”——Here he snatch’d up his fiddle with an air of great complacency, and drawing, the bow gently over the strings said, as plain as if he had spoke it. “Oh, sir, your most obedient; you compliment me indeed, sir, too much.” I then told him how long a journey I had performed on foot, and that the dusty roads had made me dry. He snatched up his violin, and before he had play’d above a bar or two, in came a footman with a jug of delicate ale. Next I mentioned modestly my having eat nothing all day.——“_Trut, trut, bish, bash, bush_,” cries the fiddle—“Indeed, sir,” replies I, “I, don’t fast for the sake of devotion”——“_ir, er, ar, querr, quorr, quurr_”—quoth the fiddle, and in came a surloin of cold beef, and mustard and bread, in the twinkling of a fiddle-stick. This gentleman, quoth I, is greater than _Orpheus_ or _Eurydice_, or the _Serpent_;—no, no, _Orpheus_ could do no such things as these—ale and beef were a note or two above his fiddle! Soon after came in Mr. _Eccho_’s wife, with a “what the deuce are you about, bringing beggars into my house?”—Mr. _Eccho_ catched up the fiddle, and such a jar did I never hear “_arg, erg, urg, gir, gor, gur_”—I warrant you madam became as dumb as if she were inchanted. Indeed, hearing this lady give me the opprobrious name of beggar, I took care to shew the diamond ring on my little finger, which I always wear when I perform in public, which might give her a better opinion of me, tho’ indeed it is only a Bristol stone, and that I pay a silver-smith two pence a week for the use of; and I would have hired a laced waistcoat, but was asked a shilling a week, tho’ I am sure the lace had been twice turn’d; yet, if I had hired it, I dare say Dr. _Hiccup_ would scarcely have kicked me out of his house. CARLISLE. At _Carlisle_ I waited on Lord _Diddle-doodle_ with proper musical credentials: he was sat against a glass practising some solfeggis on the violin, and attending to the gracefulness of his own attitude. “Most illustrious Peer,” says I, (making a bow to the very ground) “your noble ancestors gain’d victory in the hardy fields of war, but you by music civilize and harmonize mankind; with what rapture must they lean from their starry mansions to see and hear your immortal powers of harmony and grace!” I stopp’d, and on looking up, found that his lordship had not attended to a word I had spoken, nor seemed conscious of my being in the room;—but as great geniuses are often absent, I repeated my compliment in a louder voice, and approaching, was amazed to find that his lordship was quite deaf, deaf as a post; and yet he executed the most difficult passages in music with the greatest grace and manner, better, I dare say, than if he had heard his own performance.