There was a split in the musical camp, and a branch of the parent society seceded, and established themselves at the Opera House, in the Haymarket, under the title of “The Concert of Ancient Music,” or “King’s Concerts.” They afterwards moved to the Hanover Square Rooms. The concerts commenced in February, and continued till the end of May. Six directors, chosen from the nobility, selected, in turn, the pieces for each concert—at which all modern music was utterly excluded, and nothing could be played unless twenty-five years old. So strictly was this carried out, that if the director for the night introduced anything more modern, he was (and it was done more than once) fined in a very considerable sum. There were also popular concerts held at the Hanover Square rooms, during the season, to which the admission was generally half a guinea. And yet, with all this reverence for old music, it was found impossible to make a success of a “Commemoration of Dr. Arne,” which took place at Ranelagh on June 10, 1802; the expenses being £100, and the actual receipts for the night only £26! Well may the newspaper editor end the paragraph with “Poor Thomas Arne!” In contradistinction to this, a Competition of Pipers, which was annual, seems to have been a great success. The Highland Society of London gave the prizes, three in number: 1st, a handsome set of pipes with a silver plate, and forty merks Scots; 2nd and 3rd, thirty merks, and it was decided at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, before an enthusiastic audience. The principal dance of this period was the country dance; but the valse had already been introduced, and rapidly came into favour, although it was held to be fast, and rather indecent, and was danced in a somewhat different style to what it is nowadays. [Illustration: WALTZER AU MOUCHOIR—1800.] [Illustration: LA VALSE—1810.] [Illustration] CHAPTER XLIII. Painting—“The Royal Academy of Art”—The principal private Picture Galleries—Benjamin West—James Barry—Fuseli—Opie—Minor artists—Turner—Sir Thomas Laurence—Morland—Sale of his pictures—Sculptors—Engravers—Boydell—“The Exhibition of Paintings in Water Colours”—Its members-”The Associated Artists in Water Colours”—Literature—List of literary persons of the decade—Five-volume novels—Decyphering papyri—Major Ouseley’s Oriental Library—The Pope and the Lord’s Prayer—The Alfred Club. PAINTING was not at its highest at this time, and yet there were many buyers, even for the pictures then painted. The Royal Academy of Art (founded in 1765, when it received its Charter, on the 26th of January, as the Incorporated Society of British Artists, a name afterwards changed in 1768) was then located at Somerset House, where life classes were held, and instruction given, as shown in the illustration on the next page.