the first attempt of mr. burney, after his recent marriage, to vary, though not to quit his professional occupations, was seeking to set to music the ode written in the year 1769, by that most delicately perfect, perhaps, of british poets, gray, for the installation of the duke of grafton as chancellor of the university of cambridge.

the application to the duke for this purpose met with no opposition from his grace; and the earnest wish of mr. burney was to learn, and to gratify, the taste of the exquisite poet whose verses he was musically to harmonize, with regard to the

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mode of composition that would best accord with the poet’s own lyrical ideas.

to this effect, he addressed himself both for counsel and assistance to his early friend, mr. mason; from whom he received a trusting and obliging, but not very comfortable answer.[36]

not a second did mr. burney lose in forwarding every preparation for obviating any disgrace to his melodious muse, terpsichore, when the poetry of the enchanting bard should come in contact with her lyre. he formed upon a large scale a well chosen band, vocal and instrumental, for the performance; and he engaged, as leader of the orchestra, the celebrated giardini, who was the acknowledged first violinist of europe.

but, in the midst of these preliminary measures, he was called upon, by an agent of the duke, to draw up an estimate of the expense.

this he did, and delivered, with the cheerfulest confidence that his selection fully deserved its appointed retribution, and was elegantly appropriate to the dignity of its purpose.

such, however, was not the opinion of the advisers of the duke; and mr. burney had the astonished

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chagrin of a note to inform him, that the estimate was so extravagant that it must be reduced to at least one half.

cruelly disappointed, and, indeed, offended, the charge of every performer being merely what was customary for professors of eminence, mr. burney was wholly overset. his own musical fame might be endangered, if his composition should be sung and played by such a band as would accept of terms so disadvantageous; and his sense of his reputation, whether professional or moral, always took place of his interest. he could not, therefore, hesitate to resist so humiliating a proposition; and he wrote, almost on the instant, a cold, though respectful resignation of the office of composer of the installation ode.

not without extreme vexation did he take this decided measure; and he was the more annoyed, as it had been his intention to make use of so favourable an opportunity for taking his degree of doctor of music, at the university of cambridge, for which purpose he had composed an exercise. and, when his disturbance at so unlooked for an extinction of his original project was abated, he still resolved to fulfil that part of his design.

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he could not, however, while under the infliction of so recent a rebuff, visit, in this secondary manner, the spot he had thought destined for his greatest professional elevation. he repaired, therefore, to oxford, where his academic exercise was performed with singular applause, and where he took his degree as doctor in music, in the year 1769.

and he then formed many connexions amongst the professors and the learned belonging to that university, that led him to revisit it with pleasure, from new views and pursuits, in after-times.

so warmly was this academic exercise approved, that it was called for at three successive annual choral meetings at oxford; at the second of which the principal soprano part was sung by the celebrated and most lovely miss linley, afterwards the st. cecilia of sir joshua reynolds, and the wife of the famous mr. sheridan; and sung with a sweetness and pathos of voice and expression that, joined to the beauty of her nearly celestial face, almost maddened with admiring enthusiasm, not only the susceptible young students, then in the first glow of the dominion of the passions, but even the gravest and most profound among the learned professors of the university, in whom the “hey-day of the

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blood” might be presumed, long since, to have been cooled.

from this period, in which the composer and the songstress, in reflecting new credit, raised new plaudits for each other, there arose between them a reciprocation of goodwill and favour, that lasted unbroken, till the retirement of that fairest of syrens from the world.

the oxonian new lay-dignitary, recruited in health and spirits, from the flattering personal consideration with which his academical degree had been taken, gaily returned to town with his new title of doctor.

the following little paragraph is copied from a memorandum book of that year.

“i did not, for some time after the honour that had been conferred on me at oxford, display my title by altering the plate on my street door; for which omission i was attacked by mr. steel, author of an essay on the melody of speech. ‘burney,’ says he, ‘why don’t you tip us the doctor upon your door?’ i replied, in provincial dialect, ‘i wants dacity!—’ ‘i’m ashaeemed!’ ‘pho, pho,’ says he, ‘you had better brazen it.’”