does not begin till October, my brother had leisure to try my capacity for becoming a useful singer for his concerts and oratorios, and, being very well satisfied with my 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 managing the family. . . . On the second morning, on meeting my brother at breakfast, 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 concerts or rehearsals. . . . 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 fishwomen, 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, unknown to me, till he saw me safe on my way home. I knew too little of English 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 manufacture 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 settled 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 drawing-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 concerts. . . . 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.
