CHAPTER LXXIII. HANDEL'S MESSIAH. In the first volume of this work I speak of the Messiah having been composed by Handel, at Gopsal Hall, in this county, then the seat of Mr. Jenners. This accomplished gentleman selected the words for this divine oratorio from the Scriptures. The Gopsal estate has since descended to Earl Howe, who inherits the taste of the founder. It is now sixty years since I went to Gopsal, in hopes of finding the manuscripts of the great German, in the fine library there, and learnt that they had been removed to Lord Aylesford's. It is to be regretted that they did not descend with the mansion as heir-looms to Earl Howe, who has at all times been a distinguished patron of music. I met an old servant, the gardener, who told me he recollected very well the "great musicianer often comin' wi' four long tailed blacks to his master's." I expressed my surprise, and said "you don't mean a coach and four." "Aye gramercy, but I do, an' he'd ha' stuck fast, and ne'er gotten here wi' less than four; good'uns as they war." His lordship, knowing that I had often stated that the Messiah had its origin in his mansion, sent me a work lately published by an Irish barrister-Mr. Townsend-in which he states that the Messiah was written expressly for a charity in Dublin, and there first performed. I am unwilling that we should be robbed of the eclât to which Leicestershire is entitled, and boldly maintain that the statement of this writer is erroneous. According to Mr. Townsend, the oratorio was begun to be composed August 22, 1741; the first part was finished by the 28th; the second part by September the 6th; and the third part by the 18th-the whole being accomplished in three weeks. These statements are made upon the authority of a newspaper; but no person who is at all acquainted with the nature of such a performance will give credit to them. This is confessedly the finest and most elaborate of his compositions. It could scarcely have been transcribed in the time. Constant interviews must have taken place between the arranger of the words and the musician, and much consideration given, even before the plan and musical effect of the work could be fixed-especially as Handel was a foreigner. I should say twelve months, rather than three weeks, would be nearer the truth, to perfect a work of such magnitude and skill. Handel being opposed by the nobility, who had taken the management of the opera out of his hands, probably retired in disgust from the theatre, for he wrote no opera afterwards. His genius was directed to a higher order of composition, the Oratorio; and a spacious music hall having been just erected in Dublin, might determine him to bring out the Messiah in that |