324 



DISTASTE FOR MUSIC. 



PART VIII. 



them of white and brown cloth, in such a way that they 

 are pyebald. They have each a light chain about one 

 leg. Their allowance in food is a penny loaf and a half- 

 penny worth of cheese for breakfast ; a penny loaf, a 

 quart of soup, and half a pound of meat for dinner ; and 

 a penny loaf and a halfpenny worth of cheese for supper ; 

 so that they have meat and clothes at all events. I 

 employ them in removing earth, serving masons or brick- 

 layers, or in any common labouring work on which they 

 can be employed ; during which time, of course, I have 

 them strictly watched." 



Much more pleasant was his first sight of Mrs. Jordan 

 at the Shrewsbury theatre, where he seems to have 

 been worked up to a pitch of rapturous enjoyment. She 

 played for six nights there at the race time, during which 

 there were various other entertainments. On the second 

 day there was what was called an Infirmary Meeting, 

 or an assemblage of the principal county gentlemen in 

 the infirmary, at which, as county surveyor, Telford 

 was present. They proceeded thence to church to hear a 

 sermon preached for the occasion ; after which there was 

 a dinner, followed by a concert. He attended all. The 

 sermon was preached in the new pulpit, which had just 

 been finished after his designs, in the Gothic style ; and 

 he confidentially informed his Langholm correspondent 

 that he believed the pulpit secured greater admiration 

 than the sermon. With the concert he was completely 

 disappointed, and he then became convinced that he could 

 have no ear for music. Other people seemed very much 

 pleased ; but for the life of him he could make nothing 

 of it. The only difference that he recognised between 

 one tune and another was that there was a difference of 

 noise. " It was all very fine," he says, " I have no 

 doubt ; but I would not give a song of Jock Stewart l for 



1 An Eskdale crony. His son, 

 Colonel Jonas Stewart, rose to emi- 

 nence in the East India Company's 



service, having been for many years 

 Resident at Gwalior and Indore. 



