CAROLINE LUC RETT A HERS C HE L. 743 



does not begin till October, my brother had leisure to try my capacity for be- 

 coming a useful singer for his concerts and oratorios, and, being very well satisfied 

 with ray voice, I had two or three lessons every day, and the hours which were 

 not spent at the harpsichord were employed in putting me in the way of manag- 

 ing the family. . . . On the second morning, on meeting iny brother at break- 

 fast, he began immediately to give me a lesson in English and arithmetic, and 

 showed me the way of booking and keeping accounts of cash received and laid 

 out. . . . 



" My brother Alexander, who had been some time in England, boarded and 

 lodged with his elder brother, and with myself occupied the attic. The first 

 floor, which was furnished in the newest and most handsome style, my brother 

 kept for himself. The front-room, containing the harpsichord, was always in 

 order to receive his musical friends and scholars at little private conc^-ts or re- 

 hearsals. . . . Sundays I received a sum for the weekly expenses, of which my 

 housekeeping book (written in English) showed the amount laid out, and my 

 purse the remaining cash. One of the principal things required was to market, 

 and about six weeks after coming to England I was sent alone among fishwom- 

 en, butchers, basket-women, etc., and I brought home whatever in my fright I 

 could pick up. . . . My brother Alexander used to watch me at a distance, un- 

 known to me, till he saw me safe on my way home. I knew too little of Eng- 

 lish to derive any consolation from the society of those who were about me, so 

 that, dinner-time excepted, I was entirely left to myself." 



Of the progress of her musical education, we are told that she was 

 much hindered by being continually called upon to assist in the manu- 

 facture of telescopes : 



"It soon appeared that my brother was not contented with knowing what 

 former observers had seen, for he began to contrive a telescope eighteen or twenty 

 feet long, and I had to amuse myself with making the tube of pasteboard for the 

 glasses, which were to arrive from London, for at that time no optician had set- 

 tled at Bath. . . . My brother wrote to inquire the price of a reflecting mirror 

 for, I believe, a five or six foot telescope. The answer was, there were none of 

 so large a size, but a person offered to make one at a price much above what 

 my brother thought proper to give. . . . About this time he bought of a Quaker 

 at Bath, who had made attempts at polishing mirrors, all his rubbish of patterns, 

 tools, hones, polishers, unfinished mirrors, etc., but all for small Gregorians, not 

 above two or three inches in diameter. 



" Nothing serious could be attempted, for want of time, till the beginning of 

 June, when some of my brother's scholars were leaving Bath; and' then, to my 

 sorrow, I saw almost every room turned into a workshop. A cabinet-maker 

 making a tube and stands of all descriptions in a handsomely-furnished drawnng- 

 room; Alexander putting up a huge turning-machine (which he had brought in 

 the autumn from Bristol, where he used to spend the summer) in a bedroom, 

 for turning patterns, grinding glasses, and turning eye-pieces, etc. At the same 

 time music durst not lie entirely dormant during the summer, and my brother 

 had frequent rehearsals at home, where Miss Farinelli, an Italian singer, was 

 met by several of the principal performers he had engaged for the winter con- 

 certs. . . . He composed glees, catches, etc., for such voices as he could secure. 

 As soon as I could pronounce English well enough I was obliged to attend the 

 rehearsals, and on Sundays at morning and evening service. 



" But every leisure moment was eagerly snatched at for resuming some work 



