attempted the base, which he performed nearly correct, except the note immediately before the close, which, being an octave below the preceding sound, was out of the reach of his little hand.

In the beginning of November, 1777, he played both the treble and base of Let Ambition fire thy Mind.

Upon the parents relating this extraordinary circumstance to some of their neighbours, they laughed at it; and, regarding it as the effect of partial fondness for their child, advised them by no means to mention it, as such a marvellous account would only expose them to ridicule. However, a few days after, Mr. Crotch being ill, and unable to go out to work, Mr. Paul, a tradesman by whom he was employed, passing accidentally by, and hearing the organ, fancied that Crotch, instead of being ill, had been idle, and had stayed at home in order to divert himself on his favourite instrument: fully prepossessed with this idea, he entered the house, and suddenly opening the dining-room door, saw the child playing on the organ while his brother was blowing the bellows. Mr. Paul thought the performance so extraordinary, that he immediately brought two or three of the neigh bours to hear it, who propagating the report, a crowd of near a hundred people came the next day to hear the young per, former, and, on the following days, a still greater number; till at length, the child's parents were forced to limit his exhibition to certain days and bours, in order to lessen his fatigue, and exempt themselves from the inconvenience of constant attendance.

[This account agrees in most particulars with the letter we received from Norwich.]

The first Voluntary the child ever heard with attention* was performed at his father's house by Mr. Mully, a musicmaster; and as soon as he was gone, the child seeming to play on the organ in a wild and different manner from what his mother was accustomed to hear, she asked him, what he was doing? and he replied, "I am playing the gentleman's fine thing." But she was unable to judge of the resem blance: however, when Mr. Mully returned a few days after, and was asked, whether the child had remembered any of the passages in his Voluntary, he answered in the affirmative. This happened about the middle of November,

*When his father carried him to the cathedral, he used to cry the moment he heard the loud organ, which Dr. Burney supposes was too powerful for the delicacy of his nerves.

1777, when he was only two years and four months old, and for a considerable time after he would play nothing else but these passages; for being in every other respect a mere infant, Le could no more be persuaded to play than a bird to sing. Yet such was the rapid progress he had made in judging of the agreement of sounds, that he could play soon after, when in the humour, the Easter Hymn with full harmony; and in the last two or three bars of Halleluiah, where the same sound is sustained, he played chords with both hands, by which the parts were multiplied to six, which he had great difficulty in reaching on account of the shortness of his fingers.

From this period his memory was very accurate in retaining any tune that pleased him; and being present at a concert where a band of gentlemen performers played the overture in Rodelinda, he was so delighted with the minuet, that the next morning he hummed part of it in bed; and by noon, without any further assistance, played the whole on the organ.

His chief delight at present is in playing Voluntaries, which certainly manifest such a discernment and selection of notes as is truly wonderful, and which, when spontaneous, surprise at any age. But though he executes fragments of common tunes in very good time, yet no adherence to any particular measure is discoverable in his Voluntaries; and indeed his ear, though exquisitely formed for discriminating sounds, is as yet only captivated by vulgar and common melody, and is satisfied with very imperfect harmony; an instance of which appeared when he first heard the voice of Signor Pacchierotti, the principal singer of the opera: he did not seem sensible of the superior taste and refinement of that exquisite performer; but called out very soon after the air was begun," He is singing in F."

And this is one of the astonishing properties of his ear, that he can distinguish at a great distance from any instrument, and out of sight of the keys, any note that is struck, whether A, B, C, &c. a circumstance the more extraordinary, as many practitioners and good performers are unable to distinguish by the ear in what key any air or piece of music is executed. I was, says Dr. Burney, curious to know when, and in what manner, this faculty first discovered itself; and, on inquiry, his father gave this answer: that, in the middle of January 1778, while he was playing the organ, a particular note hung, or, to speak the language of organbuilders, ciphered, by which the tone was continued without the pressure of the finger: and though neither himself no

his elder son could find out what note it was, the child, who was then amusing himself with drawing on the floor,* left that employment, and going to the organ immediately laid his hand on the note that ciphered. Mr. Crotch thinking this the effect of chance, the next day purposely caused several notes to cipher, one after the other, all which he instantly discovered; and at last his father weakened the springs of two keys at once, which, by preventing the valves of the wind-chest from closing, occasioned a double cipher, both of which the child directly found out.

Another wonderful part of his prematurity was the being able, at two years and four months old, to transpose into the most extraneous and difficult keys whatever he played; and now, in his extemporaneous flights, he modulates into all keys with equal facility.

The last qualification which I shall point out as extraordinary in this infant musician, is the being able to play an extemporary base to easy melodies when performed by another person upon the same instrument. But these bases must not be imagined correct, according to the rules of counter-point, any more than his Voluntaries. He generally gives, indeed, the key-note to passages formed from its common chord and its inversions, and is quick at discovering when the fifth of the key will serve as a base. At other times he makes the third of the key serve as an accompaniment to melodies formed from the harmony of the chord to the keynote; and if simple passages are played slow, in a regular progression ascending or descending, he soon finds out that thirds or tenths below the treble will serve his purpose in furnishing an agreeable accompaniment.

Of this Dr. Burney made trial, and found that the child was equally ready in finding a treble to a base, as a base to a treble, if played in slow notes; that is, if, after the chord of C natural is struck, C be made sharp, he soon finds out that A makes a good base to it; and on the contrary, if, after the chord of D with a sharp third, F is made natural, and A is changed into B, he instantly gives G for the base.

Dr. Burney to this account has added the names of several musical prodigies of this kind, and among others the two sons of the Rev. Mr. Westley, the eldest of whom, Charles, at two years and three quarters old, surprised his father by playing a tune on the harpsichord readily and in just time;

* It must not be forgotten, that this child is equally delighted with drawing as with music, and, when tired at his organ, he is ever making sketches of one thing or other as he crawls on the floor.

soon after he played several, whatever his mother sung, or whatever he heard in the streets.

Samuel, the youngest, though he was three years old before he aimed at a tune, yet by constantly hearing his brother practise, and being accustomed to good music and masterly execution, before he was six years old arrived at such perfection as to surpass, in many particulars, the attainments of most professors, and before he could write was a composer, and mentally set the airs of several oratorios, which he retained in memory till he was eight years old, and then wrote them down.

1779, Dec.

LXV. Names of those who first constituted the Antiquarian Society.

A List of the Society of Antiquaries, extracted from their Charter of Incorporation, dated November 2, 1751.

THE FIRST COUNCIL.

MARTIN FOLKES, esq.
President.

Sir John Evelyn, bart. V. P.
Sir Clement Cottrel Dormer,
V. P.

James West, esq. V. P.
James Theobald, esq. V. P.
Richard Viscount Fitzwilliam.
Hugh Lord Willoughby, of
Parham.

Sir Joseph Ayloffe, bart.
Charles Compton, esq.

Philip Yorke, esq.
Samuel Gale, esq.
Edward Umfreville, esq.
Philip Carteret Webb, esq.
Daniel Wray, esq.
John Ward, LL.D.
Jeremiah Milles, D.D.
Cromwell Mortimer, D.D.
Richard Rawlinson, LL.D.
Browne Willis, LL.D.
George Vertue, gent.
Joseph Ames, gent.

On the fourteenth of November the following Members were nominated under the Power of the Charter.

Maurice Johnson, esq.
Thomas Martin, esq.
Henry Johnson, esq.
Allen Cooper, M.A.

Sir Charles Mordaunt, bart.
Wm. Lethieullier, esq.

Sir John Clerke, bart.
Isaac Wood, gent.

George Lynn, esq.
William Bogdani, esq.
James Mundy, esq.
Robert New, esq.
Nicholas Hardinge, esq.
Charles Frederick, esq.
William Hall, esq.
William Draper, esq.
Walter Bowman, esq.
Samuel Tuffnel, esq.
Wm. Richardson, D.D.
Edward Vernon, D.D.
David Papillon, esq.
Thomas Birch, M.A.
John Sawbridge, esq.
Andrew Mitchel, esq.
Zachary Chambers, esq.
Geo. Lewis Scott, esq.
William Bowyer, gent.
John Cay, esq.
Thomas Barret, esq.
John Locker, esq.
Peter Collinson, gent.
Sir Arthur Forbes, bart.
And. Ducarel, LL.D.
Thom. Morrell, D.D.
Theodore Jacobson, esq.
John Carter, esq.
John Greene, esq.
William Hanbury, esq.
Charles Lyttleton, Dean of
Exeter.

Rt. Hon. John Lord Viscount
Tyrconnel.

David Hartley, M.A.
Joshua Blew, gent.

William Sotheby, esq.

Philip Henry Warburton, esq.
George Shelvocke, esq.
William Cowper, esq.
John Eardley Wilmot, esq.
Thomas Edwards, esq.
William Strahan, esq.

Henry Baker, gent.
James Burrough, esq.
George North, M.A.
Andrew Lawrence, gent.
Richard Pococke, D.D.
Robert Bootle, esq.
Sir Peter Thomson, knt.
Thomas Leonard Barret, esq.
Augustine Earle, esq.
Allan Ramsay, gent.

John Lawry, M.A.
Peter Davall, esq.
John Booth, gent.
Marsh Dickenson, esq.
William Cole, M.A.
Charles Chauncy, MD.
Benjamin Prideaux, esq.
Erasmus Earle, esq.
Henry Rooke, gent.
Samuel Reynardson, esq.
Samuel Squire, D.D.
Charles Joy, esq.
John Hill, esq.

Josiah Colebroke, gent.
Wm. Townshend, gent.
John Locke, esq.
Francis Blomefield, M.A.
Hon. Heneage Legge, esq.
Gustavus Brander, gent.
Edmund Sawyer, esq.
John Taylor, LL.D.
Sir Tho. Robinson, bart.
Rev. Andrew Gifford.
James Parsons, M.D.
William Hooker, gent.
Francis Wise, B.D.
Philip Smith, gent.
Samuel Mead, esq.
Walter Johnson, gent.

Francis Wollaston, esq.
Henry Read, esq.
Edward Lye, M.A.
Henry Cheere, esq.
Samuel Berkley, esq.
William Mitford, Esq.
Samuel Pegge, M.A.
Thomas Wilson, gent.
Godolphin Edwards, esq.
James Burrow, esq.