seeing and hearing. Colman, Twining, Harris, Baretti,
Hawkesworth, Reynolds, Barry, were among those who occasionally
surrounded the tea table and supper tray at her father's modest
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dwelling. This was not all. The distinction which Dr. Burney had
acquired as a musician and as the historian of music, attracted
to his house the most eminent musical performers of that age.
The greatest Italian singers who visited England regarded him as
the dispenser of fame in their art, and exerted themselves to
obtain his suffrage. Pacchierotti became his intimate friend.
The rapacious Agujari, who sang for nobody else under fifty
pounds an air, sang her best for Dr. Burney without a fee; and in
the company of Dr. Burney even the haughty and eccentric
Gabrielli constrained herself to behave with civility. It was
thus in his power to give, with scarcely any expense, concerts
equal to those of the aristocracy. On such occasions, the quiet
street in which he lived was blocked up by coroneted chariots,
and his little drawing-room was crowded with peers, peeresses,
ministers and ambassadors. On one evening, of which we happen to
have a full account, there were present Lord Mulgrave, Lord
Bruce, Lord and Lady Edgecumbe, Lord Barrington from the War
office, Lord Sandwich from the Admiralty, Lord Ashburnham, with
his gold key dangling from his pocket, and the French ambassador,
M. De Guignes, renowned for his fine person and for his success
in gallantry. But the great show of the night was the Russian
ambassador, Count Orloff, whose gigantic figure was all in a
blaze with jewels, and in whose demeanour the untamed ferocity of
the Scythian might be discerned through a thin varnish of French
Politeness. As he stalked about the small parlour, brushing the