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THE STRUCTURE ERECTED IN THE GREEN PARK FOR THE FIREWORK MUSIC AND THE CELEBRATION OF THE PEACE OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.

The Vauxhall Rehearsal

proves the grip which Handel had begun to acquire on the people. Can one imagine a crowd of twelve thousand persons pressing to hear a single rehearsal of the music of anybody in these days? Holding up London Bridge. And a press of lackeys and footmen so thick with the carriages at the entrance to the Gardens, that pushing and high words developed into free fights into which some of the quality were drawn against their will. Duchesses were hustled by scrambling shopkeepers from Cheapside; the beauties of Hanover Square had their dresses torn, their coifs disordered. Yet they never relaxed from their purpose, but went on and heard Mr Handel. His hold upon the imagination and affection of the people was never stronger.

The Vauxhall rehearsal was merely a soupçon of what was to follow on Tuesday the 27th. Not only were all the entrances to the Park thrown open on that day, but a breach, nearly fifty feet in length, was cut in the park wall to enable the crowds ample entrance and exit. One hundred and one brass cannon had been installed near the huge wooden building to thunder out a Royal salute that should start the firework display; eighteen more smaller ordnance were under the musicians' gallery to fire single shots during Handel's music, and so give colour to the wild rejoicing in his notes.

The King was enchanted. Why had he not thought of this after Dettingen? He had had the men-the gunsHandel. His excitement was intense. He changed his uniform twice in the first two hours. He appeared in the crowd, with a kingly smile of approbation. He inspected the huge wooden building, the galleries, the engineer's arrangements, and found them good. He gave a heavy purse of money to be distributed among those who had achieved the construction. He reviewed the Guards from the garden wall. For three hours he reviewed Guards.

With the coming of night the crowds grew more dense, and the air for April was close and dust-laden, since there had been no rain for many days. Coaches struggled through the masses in the side streets, or were turned back. Thieves enjoyed a wild orgy without let or hindrance. The town was let loose. Handel had prepared a magnificent band, worthy of the

occasion. He had forty trumpets, twenty French horns, sixteen hautboys, sixteen bassoons, eight pairs of kettledrums, twelve side-drums and flutes and fifes. For the first time he introduced that forgotten instrument, the serpent, into his band; indeed, he put it into his score but took it out again. Perhaps he was not enamoured of the instrument, for when he first heard it he declared that it was not the serpent that seduced Eve. In toto he had for that night as fine a band as he had ever conducted.

The Firework Music, as he called it, though it lacks the sublime beauty which characterised his Water Music, was nevertheless a great achievement. The King, the Princesses and the Duke of Cumberland, together with the Duke of Montagu, Master of the Ordnance, the Dukes of Bedford and Richmond, were in the Royal Library, the windows of which were only five hundred yards from the ungainly construction which the dusk had slowly concealed. And now its entire outline was limned with strings of fire. A fine setting for Handel's music, which leaped and dropped like tongues of flame. Yet but little of it was heard by the Prince of Wales, for, engaged as he was in a fresh quarrel with his father, he kept aloof from the royal party, and witnessed the fireworks from the house of the Earl of Middlesex in Arlington Street.

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The music ceased. The crowd, splayed like a black carpet in the flare of the lights, roared. A rocket stole up, exploded, drifted away in sparks. A surge of excitement spread with a dull muffled murmur over the crowd. It was the signal for the fireworks, and the hundred and one little brass cannon roared in unison.

But the fireworks were muddled. They went off in fits and starts. The giant sun alone blazed nobly from the head of the pole. Little serpents of flame clambered up the staging, fizzled and spluttered and went out. Men climbed like monkeys with torches, and lit things, lit them again. Thus hours passed with fitful display, followed by intervals of irritating failure.

Then came the climax. The great building was set on fire; in a few minutes it was a mass of beating, roaring flame. The crowd began to stampede, to shout, to hustle. Women were trodden down, and the heat grew terrific. George giving

The Foundling Hospital

Peace to Britannia dropped, with his head aflame, into a cauldron of fire. It was ignoble, humiliating. And so hysterical became the gallant little Italian Chevalier Servandoni when he witnessed the failure and destruction of all his organisation, that he drew his sword upon the Duke of Montagu, and was promptly arrested.

The only success that had come from this national celebration had been Handel's. The King was very conscious of it. Apart from the music, the affair had too much of the damp squib about it for his liking. He realised that Handel had saved some dignity for him from what might otherwise have been a complete fiasco involving the royal person. The burning George dropping with a clatter and a cloud of uprising sparks into the fiery furnace below had been pitiable. It might have been the work of some demon of mischief, prodding and poking under the cloak of vanity and pose which the King had worn all day, as he believed, with complete

success.

The King's esteem of Handel was warmed to new life by the events of 27th April. When in May the composer gave a performance of the Firework Music for the benefit of the Foundling Hospital-that institution which the big-hearted Captain Coram had organised nine years before out of the profits made from his trading vessel-the King subscribed two thousand pounds. As for the Prince of Wales, he attended the performance in person, since his father's subscription had relieved the monarch of the necessity of being present. Thereby another family jar was avoided, and the prestige of royalty for supporting all charitable things suffered not at all.

Handel's performance in May 1749 for the Foundling Hospital, or, as it was then called, "The Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children," is memorable, since it marked the beginning of his rich patronage. It also strengthened the friendship between himself and Hogarth, for the painter, with all his whims and fancies, his loves and hatreds, never wavered in his devotion to the cause of these lost children. Ultimately, both he and Handel were Governors of the Hospital together. It was this concert of the 27th of May which brought to Handel the offer of the Governorship, for not only did he perform his

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