In the following month he spent three days in Bath with Dr Burney,
and Rauzzini, the famous tenor, who had retired to the fashionable
watering-place after a successful career of thirteen years as a
singer and teacher in London. Rauzzini is little more than a name
now, but for Haydn's sake it is worth recalling his memory. Born at
Rome in 1747, his striking beauty of face and figure had drawn him
into certain entanglements which made it expedient for him to leave
his native land. He was as fond of animals as Dragonetti was of
dolls, and had erected a memorial tablet in his garden to his "best
friend," otherwise his dog. "Turk was a faithful dog and not a
man," ran the inscription, which reminds one of Schopenhauer's
cynical observation that if it were not for the honest faces of
dogs, we should forget the very existence of sincerity. When Haydn
read the inscription he immediately proceeded to make use of the
words for a four-part canon. It was presumably at this time that he
became acquainted with Dr Henry Harington, the musician and author,
who had removed to Bath in 1771, where he had founded the Harmonic
Society. Haydn dedicated one of his songs to him in return for
certain music and verses, which explains the following otherwise
cryptic note of Clementi's, published for the first time recently
by Mr J. S. Shedlock: "The first Dr [Harington] having bestowed
much praise on the second Dr [Haydn], the said second Dr, out of
doctorial gratitude, returns the 1st Dr thanks for all favours
recd., and praises in his turn the said 1st Dr most handsomely."
The title of Haydn's song was "Dr Harington's Compliments."

Opera Concerts

The composer returned to London at the beginning of October for