B R I 



gave him a fum of money not to fet up. Upon tliis, Tom 

 went into Northamptonfhirc again, and after he had fpent 

 his money, he returned, and fct up a fmall-coal trade, 

 though his mafter was ilill hviiig, taking a liable in Clcrk- 

 enwcll, which he turned into a houfe. Tliis feems tlic 

 only difhonuuiable action with which Tom could ever be 

 charged. 



Some time after he had been fettled in bufiiitfs here, he 

 became acquainted with Dr. Garanicre, iiis ncighnoitr, an 

 eminent chc riil, who admitting liim into his laboratory, 

 Tom, with the doflor's coulent, and his own obfcrvalion, 

 foosi became a notable chcmill, contrived, and built himfelf 

 a movinsi laboratory, in which, according to Hearnc, " he 

 performed with little expence and trouble, fuch things as 

 had never been done before." 



Defidcs his great (kill in chemiflry, he betiime a praflical, 

 and, as was thought, a theoretical muficiaii. Tradi- 

 tion only informs us, that he was very fond of mufic, and 

 that he was able to perform on the viol da gamha at his 

 own concerts, which he at firft cllabliflied gratis in his niiie- 

 rabie houfe, which was an old mean building, the f round- 

 floor of V hich was a rcpofitory for his fmall-coal ; over this 

 was his concert-room, long, low, and narrow, to which 

 there was no other afcent than by a pair of ftairs on the 

 oiitfide, fo perpendicular and narrow, as fcarcely to be 

 mounted without crawling. 



Heame allows him to have been a very diligent colleftor 

 of old books of all kinds, which, in his courfes through the 

 town crying his fmall-coal, he had a good opportunity of 

 doing at flails, where he ufed to ftop and fcleft for pur- 

 chafe whatever was ancient, particularly on his two favourite 

 fubicfts of chemillry and mufic. On the former, it lias na- 

 turally been fuggefted, that he had picked up books on 

 Rofycrucian myllerics, and not impofTible, but that he may 

 have walled fome of his fmall-coals in the great fecrets of 

 alchymy in the tranfmutation of metals. 



With refpeft to mufic, he coUefted all the elementary 

 books in Englifli that were then extant : fuch as Morley's 

 introduAioii, Siinpfon's divifion violift, Playford, Butler, 

 Bath, and IMace ; nine books of inllruftion for the pfal- 

 mody, flute, and mock t"umpet. But befides his vail col- 

 letlion of printed mufic, the catalogue of which fills eight 

 pages in 410. of fir J. Hawkins's hill, of mufic, he feems to 

 have been fuch an indefatigable copyiil, that he is faid 

 to have tranfcribed with his own hand, very neatly and ac- 

 curately, a coUedion of mufic which fold after his deceafc 

 for near icol. 



Mr. Walpole, in his anecdotes, fays that " Woolafton the 

 paintir, who wa? a good performer on the violin and flute, 

 had played at the concert, held at the houfe of that ex- 

 traordinary perfon, Thomas Britton the fmall coal man, 

 whofe picture he twice drew, one of which was purchafed 

 by fir Hans Sloane, and is now in the Britifh mufeum : 

 there is a mezzotinto from it. T. Britton, who made mut h 

 noife in his time, confidering his low llation and trade, was 

 a collector of all forts of curiofities, particularly drawings, 

 prints, books, manufcripts on uncommon fubjetts, as myllic 

 divinity, the philofopher's Hone, judicial ailrology, and ma- 

 gic; and mufical inllrHments, both in and out of vogue. 

 Various were the opinions concerning him : fome thought 

 his mufical aflcmbly only a cover for feditious meetings ; 

 ethers, for magical pnrpofcs. He was taken ior an atheill, 

 a prtlbyterian, a jsUiit. But Woolafioii the painter, and 

 the fon of a gentleman, who had likewife been a member of 

 that club, averred it as their opinions, that Britton was a 

 plain, fimpje, honell man. \»'ho only meant to amufe h'm- 

 felf. The fublcription was but ten (hillings a year; Britton 

 fouTid the inftruments, and they had cofiee at a penny a difli. 

 Sir Kans Sloane bought many of his books and MSS. nov/ 



3 



B R I 



in the mufeum, when they were fold by auftion at Tom'j 

 coffee-houfe near I^udgate." 



We have in early life converfed with members of this 

 concert, who fpoke of him in the fame manner. So late as 

 the middle of the lall century, mezzotinto prints of him were 

 ill all the print (hops, particularly an excellent one by 

 Smith, under which, and almoll all the prints of Britton, 

 were the following verfes by Hughes, who frequently per- 

 formed on the violin at the concerts of this ingenious fniaU- 

 coal man. 



♦' Though mean thy rank, yet in thy humble cell 



Did gentle peace and arts, unpurchafcd, dwell ; 



Well pleafcd Apollo thither led liis train, 



And mufic warbled in her fweetell drain. 



Cylleiiius fo, as fables tell, and Jove, 



Came willing guells to poor Philemon's grove. 



Let ufelefs pomp behold, and blufii to find. 



So Iowa (lation, fuch a liberal mind." 

 In moll of the prints, he was reprefented with his fack of 

 fmall-coal on his ftioulder, and his meafure of retail in his 

 hand. 



In the Guardian, N° 144, Steele fpeaking of the variety 

 of original and odd charafters, which our free government 

 produces, fays : " AVe have a fmall-coal man, who b-gin- 

 ning with two plain notes, which made up his daily cry, has 

 made himfelf mafler of the whole compafs of the gammut, 

 and has frequent concerts of mufic at his own houfe, for the 

 entertainment of himfelf and friends." 



But the afiertion of fir John Hawkins, that Britton was 

 the firft who had a meeting that corrcfpondcd with the idea 

 of a concert, is not correft : in the time of Charles I. 

 and during the ufurpation, at Oxford, meetings for the per- 

 formance of Fitncies in fix and feven parts, which preceded 

 fonatas and conceits, were very common. And in Charles 

 the Second's time, Baniller, father and fon, had concerts, 

 firil at taverns and public houfes, and afterwards at York 

 buildings. 



It is, perhaps, not a matter worthy of difpute ; but we 

 imagine, that it would be difficult to prove that Handel 

 ever played at the fmall-coal man's concert. Handel was 

 proud, and never had much refpett for Englifli compoleis. 

 He had been careffed and patronized by princes and nobles 

 fo long, that he would as foon have gone into a coal-pit 

 to play at a concert, as to the hovel of our vender of Imall- 

 coal. 



About the commencement of the lad century, a pallion 

 prevailed among feveral perfons of diftinetion, of coUeRing 

 old books and MSS. : and it was their Saturday's a^nufe- 

 ment during winter, to ramble through various quart rs of 

 the town in purfuit of thcfe trcafures. Tlie earls c-f Ox- 

 ford, Pembroke, Sunderland, and Winchclfea, and the 

 duke of Devonfiiire, were of this party, and Mr. Bagford 

 and other coUeftors affifted them in their rcfearches. Brit- 

 ton appears to have been employed by them ; and as he was 

 a very modcll, decent, and unprefuming man, he waj a 

 fliarer in their converlation, v.hen they met after their morn- 

 ing's walk, at a bookfeller's (hop in Ave-Maria lane. Brit- 

 ton ufed to pitch his coal fack on a bulk at the door, and, 

 drcifed in his blue frock, to Hep in and fpeiid an hour with 

 the company. But it was not only by a few literary lords 

 that his acquaintance was cultivated ; his humble roof w-as 

 frequented by alfemblies of the fair and the gay ; and his 

 fondnefs for mufic caufed him to be known by many dilet- 

 tanti and profelfors, who formed themfelvcs into a club at 

 his houfe, where capital pieces were played by fome of the 

 Srll profeffional artills, and other pradtitioners ; and here 

 Dubourg, when a child, played, ftanding upon a joint-ftool,. 

 the firll lolo that he ever executed in public. 

 We cannot terminate this article better than from Tiu 



-■\ikin's 



