first introduced his music into England in 1741, when it was rejected by metropolitan audiences. The musical writers say it first found favourable public recognition in Dublin in 1742; but in such statements they allude to metropolitan acceptation and have clearly overlooked the "rude north," which, as the above date shows, surpassed them in critical taste, as they must also have done in execution, for the metropolis could not have improvised a chorus equal to the task. Having once obtained his footing hereabouts, Handel has since maintained the forepost of honour; and however remarkable it may appear, it is certain that in the middle of last century provincial choruses were rendering his best oratorios in the parish churches of remote country towns, such as Otley, Skipton, and Knaresborough; in each of which full renderings of the "Messiah" were occasionally given at prices which could not have averaged "houses" of thirty pounds each. The history and influence of Handel's music are well illustrated by the announcement of a performance in Leeds Parish Church in 1770: For the benefit of Mr. Crompton, Organist of the Parish Church of Leeds, On Thursday, the last day of May 1770, will be performed at THE MESSIAH, a sacred ORATORIO, by a band of upwards of Seventy select performers. JUDAS MACCHABEUS. The Choruses will be accompanied with Trumpets, French Horns, Kettledrums, Clarinetts, &c. The whole will be conducted by Mr. Jobson. The Organ by Mr. Crompton. The Hautboys, Clarinetts, &c., by Mr. Tatnall, Mr. Perkins, Mr. Turner, Mr. Lincoln, and Mr. Muchman from London. The vocal parts by Miss Radcliffe, Mr. Neild, Mrs. Neild, Mr. Radcliffe, &c., from Hey Chapel. The rest of the performers from Wakefield, Halifax, Manchester, Sheffield, and other parts adjacent. The doors to be opened at nine, and the performance to begin at Ten O'clock in the forenoon. Tickets at 35., 25., and Is. each, to be had at the Old and New King's Arms, Talbot, Golden Lyon, White Horse, in Boar Lane, &c. We learn from this that the unsurpassed brilliancy of the Leeds Musical Festival is not an accidental display of heaven-born talent, but owing to long-established music culture, not less than better. native aptness which allowed choruses to be collected from the best of the singers of the whole of the West Riding, in no part of which it may be said Handel could not then be rendered. Puritanism and cloth-making had achieved that vocal end. We have already seen that it was to music, even more than to the decline of Puritanism, that the drama owed its domicile in the chief northern towns. The approach of Thespis was decidedly surreptitious in all the towns then struggling forward. The earliest Leeds theatrical advertisement which has occurred to the writer shows how cunningly the welcome Apollo was made to introduce the longdisdained Thespians: On Tuesday, January 13th, 1767, A CONCERT of Music, At the Concert room, in the Rose and Crown yard, THE CONSCIOUS LOVERS, To which will be added a new pantomime Entertainment call'd The whole to conclude with A DANCE. By the transparent artifice of setting forth the performance as a concert, and giving the dramatic elements gratis, moral objections. which might otherwise have bristled up were overcome in a people notoriously keen of "getting plenty for their brass." When greed and morality were artfully pitted against each other greed won, and since the first moment of its victory its opponent has never recovered the lost ground so far as matters Thespian are concerned. Tate Wilkinson, the great apostle of the Thespians, fastened the bonds of his order upon most of the northern towns. In Doncaster-horsey, racy, and very much more-he attended the races "with his company" for many years before he could settle there; it was not until 1776 that he opened the theatre, built for him by the Corporation, and described it as "very pretty and elegant." But when once established there, his footing may be regarded as monarchical. Mayors and aldermen patronised him; earls and countesses fêted and amused him, while the ignoble ruck applauded and paid himand than this he could not wish to further go. In Leeds, at the moment when the town may have been most conscious of awakening piety, strangely enough he succeeded earlier. The year 1771 was marked in Leeds by three very important, yet strangely dissimilar, events the opening of the General Infirmary, of the Theatre in Hunslet Lane, and of St. Peter's Wesleyan Chapel. In the progress of the three places there was, however, a marked difference. The Infirmary was at once the home of a celebrated School of Surgeons, and gave rank to all who could claim association with it; the early chapel was one of the favourite resting-places of John Wesley; but for two years of its first existence the Theatre struggled on, recognised only out of eye-corners, and entirely at the caprice of the Cathedral City. After that pupilage it burst into an effort of individuality with the following advertising thumps of drums and clashes of cymbals : On Monday next, June 14, 1773, a Subscription for The THEATRE in LEEDS, With a Comedy never acted here, call'd THE SCHOOL FOR RAKES, And a New Farce, call'd CROSS PURPOSES, and early in the Subscription will be given a NEW PANTOMIME ENTERTAINMENT, got up at a very considerable expense, with a variety of new Scenery, &c., &c. Tickets: Box 155., Pitt 10s., each, to be had at the Theatre from Ten O'clock on Monday Morning till the play begins. In order to make it more agreeable to the Public, and less hazardous to the manager (who is at a great and certain expense) there will be plays but for the few weeks between this time and the York assizes, after which the Theatre will not be again opened till the beginning of September, for nine days. And so the shadow of the Cathedral City still remained on the provincial towns; to be finally removed from Leeds by this very effort. The "nine days" at the beginning of September expanded into a month of successful play. The performances finished on October 6 with "The Constant Couple, or a Trip to the Jubilee," for the benefit of Mr. and Mrs. Weston; and at the end of the play, "by particular desire," was a singing interlude from Mr. Garrick's "Jubilee," the whole concluding with a new farce, called "The Trip to Portsmouth." So the "Company of Comedians " was installed in Leeds; and York had to begin the downward career which brought it to its present insignificance in matters both musical and theatrical. The difference with which the "play-actor" was housed in York and in Leeds is a striking illustration of the influence of "appearances." York, softened as to its Puritanism by the traditions of scholarship and the cathedral, boldly found him an arena within sound of the cathedral organ, and in touch with the best of its streets and localities. In Leeds, on the other hand, prim respectability would not so openly countenance him as to receive him in its midst. The exhortations of the tabernacle were certainly not yet to be openly flouted. If it must be that a local habitation should be provided for him, local propriety declared that it should be as remote as possible. The decriers of every caste were unanimous in this matter. Some of them might openly encourage him, others secretly; but all wished "appearances" to be saved. Into the fold of civic decorum he certainly should not be admitted. So it happened that the first theatre erected in Leeds -that in Hunslet Lane-was sent into a more remote spot than was assigned to Puritanism and Nonconformity in the intolerant days of Charles the Merrie. It may not be ill for fin de siècle Victorians to catch a glimpse of the spot as known to the contemporaries of the Prince Regent. In July 1813, James Lauffin, an Irish cloth-dresser, was killed by lightning while taking shelter under an elm tree in Hunslet Lane. The site was only to be approached by the passage of a bog whose further extremity is yet known as Frogland. The adoption of such a site is the surest index of public opinion, and an undeniable proof of the existence of narrow bigotry. Had the conscience of Leeds been as honest or as fearless as that of York, the theatre of Leeds would not have remained in the outskirts of the town for a century after its erection. W. WHEATER. but for two years of its first existence the Theatre struggled on, recognised only out of eye-corners, and entirely at the caprice of the Cathedral City. After that pupilage it burst into an effort of individuality with the following advertising thumps of drums and clashes of cymbals : On Monday next, June 14, 1773, a Subscription for The THEATRE in LEEDS, With a Comedy never acted here, call'd THE SCHOOL FOR RAKES, And a New Farce, call'd CROSS PURPOSES, and early in the Subscription will be given a NEW Pantomime EntERTAINMENT, got up at a very considerable expense, with a variety of new Scenery, &c., &c. Tickets: Box 155., Pitt 10s., each, to be had at the Theatre from Ten O'clock on Monday Morning till the play begins. In order to make it more agreeable to the Public, and less hazardous to the manager (who is at a great and certain expense) there will be plays but for the few weeks between this time and the York assizes, after which the Theatre will not be again opened till the beginning of September, for nine days. And so the shadow of the Cathedral City still remained on the provincial towns; to be finally removed from Leeds by this very effort. The "nine days" at the beginning of September expanded into a month of successful play. The performances finished on October 6 with "The Constant Couple, or a Trip to the Jubilee," for the benefit of Mr. and Mrs. Weston; and at the end of the play, "by particular desire," was a singing interlude from Mr. Garrick's "Jubilee," the whole concluding with a new farce, called "The Trip to Portsmouth." So the "Company of Comedians" was installed in Leeds; and York had to begin the downward career which brought it to its present insignificance in matters both musical and theatrical. The difference with which the "play-actor" was housed in York and in Leeds is a striking illustration of the influence of "appearances." York, softened as to its Puritanism by the traditions of scholarship and the cathedral, boldly found him an arena within sound of the cathedral organ, and in touch with the best of its streets and localities. In Leeds, on the other hand, prim respectability would not so openly countenance him as to receive him in its midst. The exhortations of the tabernacle were certainly not yet to be openly flouted. If it must be that a local habitation should be provided for him, local propriety declared that it should be as remote as possible. The decriers of every caste were unanimous in this matter. Some of them might openly encourage him, others secretly; but all wished "appearances" to be saved. Into the fold of civic decorum he certainly should not |