John Maitland

“ July 1565’ is in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. Maitland's literary services have been specially recognised by the foundation in 1828 in his honour of the Maitland Club, Glasgow, which has rendered invaluable service by its publication of manuscripts bearing on Scottish antiquities and history.
By his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Cranstoun of Crosbie, Maitland had three sons and four daughters. The sons were William of Lethington [q. v.] ; John, lord Maitland of Thirlestane [q. v.] ; and Thomas, who was a fellow-student with Andrew Melville at St. ”

“ When John Blair died, perhaps a sort of faithfulness to his wishes made his Sally "take care" of Herbert Maitland by marrying him. "His child certainly does need a mother," she thought;—"an intelligent mother, not a goose." ”

“ This latter office he held till 1567, when he resigned it in favour of his son John [q. v.] , afterwards Lord Maitland of Thirlestane. In his preface to the ‘House of Seton,’ Maitland states that on account of his blindness he was unable ‘to occupy himself as in times past,’ and that to ‘avoid idleness of mind,’ and because he thought it ‘perilous to “mell” with matters of great importance,’ he devoted his leisure to literary pursuits. ”

“ John Deloraine? I’ve heard of her. She is a lively widow, isn’t she?”
“She is a practical philanthropist,” answered Maitland, flushing a little.
“Pretty, too, I have been told?”
“Yes; she is ‘conveniently handsome,’ as Izaak Walton says.”
“I say, Maitland, here’s a chance to humanize you. Why don’t you ask her to marry you? Pretty and philanthropic and rich—what better would you ask?”
“I wish everyone wouldn’t bother a man to marry,” Maitland replied testily, and turning red in his peculiar manner ”

“ Do your own work as well as you can, and don't growl and grumble at other people. And if you are angry, you must not bark, nor bite him, but take it patiently."
What more she might have added I do not know, for her harangue was interrupted by old John the groom, who was, like myself, waiting for the gentleman in question. John's wife had been Lily's nurse, and he himself taught her to ride and helped her to garden, and had a sort of partnership with me in taking care of her; so that there was a great friendship between us all three. ”

“ I smelt the very man whom I expected. Others might be with him, but there was [Pg 27] he. Without a moment's delay, I set up an alarum that might have wakened the whole village; at any rate, it woke our whole house. Down stairs came my master in his dressing-gown; down came old John, lantern in hand, and red nightcap on head. Lily peeped out of her bedroom window, with a shawl over her shoulders; and seeing her papa in the court, ran down to help him,—as if she could have been any help against robbers, poor little darling! ”

“ I would have attacked a wild beast, or defended the house against a robber, without the slightest fear; but I could not stand fire; and the moment I saw a gun pointed, there was no help for it, I fairly turned tail and ran off.
"The poor beast is spoilt, sir," said John to my master. "It is cruel to force him, and he'll never be good for any thing again."
"It is of no use taking him out," replied my master; "but he is far from good for nothing. He [Pg 24] has plenty of spirit still, and we must make a house-dog of him." ”

“ J. Wilson and others, and finally many compositions by William Lawes. The dedication to the king by Henry Lawes contains the most important contemporary account of his deceased brother's works. The title of Milton's sonnet 'To Mr. H. Lawes on his Aires,' together with its date, 9 Feb. 1645–6 (see discussion as to original title in Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vi. 337, 395, 492) , seems to point to an earlier publication, before 1648. Lawes mentions an unauthorised issue of twenty songs in his preface to his first book of 'Ayres and Dialogues for One, Two, and Three Voyces,' published in 1653 ”

“ FARMER, JOHN (fl. 1591–1601) , composer, was a favourite of Edward Vere, seventeenth earl of Oxford, ‘a great favourer of poets (being one himself) and musitians’ (Wood, MS. Notes in Bodleian) . To this nobleman he dedicated the two works which he published on his own responsibility. ”

“ Gostling was sworn a gentleman extraordinary of the Chapel Royal, and on the 28th was admitted in ordinary on the death of William Tucker. The entry in the Cheque Book describes him as ‘a base from Canterbury, Master of Arts.’ It is fairly certain that he is the John Gostling who took the degree of B.A. from St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1672. Gostling was famous for the compass and power of his voice. The opening passages of Purcell's ‘They that go down to the sea in ships,’ an anthem written for Gostling, and at his own request, is a lasting witness to its compass. ”

“ Our neighbours on the continent are not so fortunate as we are. True that for some very early ages they have fuller memorials than we can show; but already in the eleventh century Domesday Book stands out in its unique grandeur, and when our rolls of the King's Court begin in Richard's day, when our manorial rolls begin in Henry III.'s or John's, and our Year Books in Edward I.'s, then we become the nation whose law may be intimately known. ”

“ Milton's abilities, he pitched on him to compose the masque,' is possibly true; for Lawes was throughout his life familiar with literary men, and himself had a strong literary instinct; and the fact that the first edition of the masque was published without Milton's name, only that of Lawes appearing in the dedication, is more easily explained if the initiative in providing the entertainment belonged to the musician. The performance took place on Michaelmas night 1634, and Lawes and his three young pupils, the brothers just mentioned and Lady Alice Egerton, played prominent parts. ”

“ Lind's retirement from the stage, one of the most interesting was the performance of ‘Elijah,’ given in Exeter Hall on 15 Dec. 1848, in order to raise a fund for the endowment of a scholarship in memory of Mendelssohn, who had died in November of the previous year. Although, as in the case of Meyerbeer's opera, Mlle. Lind was not the first to sing the soprano part, there is no doubt that the composer had her voice in view when he wrote the music, and therefore a peculiar interest attached to the first of many occasions on which she interpreted it. ”

“ He distinguished himself even as a boy singer, and by his gentle, amiable disposition, became a great favourite not only with his master, but also with Sir John Hawkins, whose daughter, in her 'Anecdotes,' mentions him frequently, and always with the highest admiration, not only of his talents, but of his character. He made his first appearance as a bass singer in 1788 at the Ancient Concerts, and he kept up his connection with that institution, with only one break, until he was compelled by ill-health to resign. ”

“ At the same time I try to watch with interest this process of destruction, admiring any bit of sapper work that is well done." It is rather amusing to note that in the letter, written in the country, which puts these things most dolefully, he adds: "The life here shows little trace of vortical influence." Of course this is a reference to the whirlpool of London.
In 1896 I was myself married, and went to live in a little house in Fulham. I understood what peace was, and he had none. As Maitland had not met my wife for some years I asked him to come and dine with us. ”

“ He was living in Paris in 1735. In that year the youngest of the brothers, Thomas Eccles, also a violinist, but an exceedingly dissipated character, who was at that time an itinerant performer, said that he had a brother who was at that time in the service of the king of France, and that this brother had taught him to play. Mendel (Convers. Lex. iii. 315) asserts that Henry Eccles died in 1742, and, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the statement even of so untrustworthy an authority may be taken as possibly true. ”

“ But my master and John were quiet enough, and they examined the gate, and the footsteps outside, and decided that there certainly had been an attempt to break into the house, but that the robbers had been frightened away by me.
"It has been a narrow escape for them, sir," said John; "for if they had succeeded in getting in, the dog would have pinned them."
"Captain has done his duty well," said my master, "and no one can call him useless any more."
"It is a good thing no one was hurt," added Lily; "but I am glad they were frightened. Perhaps the fright will cure them." ”

“ I have often thought since that Maitland felt that most of his disasters sprang from the premature death of his father, whom he loved so tenderly. Indeed the elder man must have been a remarkable figure, a gentle, courtly, and most kindly man, himself born in exile and placed in alien circumstances. Maitland often used to speak, with a catch in his voice, of the way his father read to him. I remember not what books, but they were the classic authors of England; Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and Tennyson. Some seem to imagine that the father had what is called a well-stocked library. ”

“ John Ferrabosco, who was organist of Ely Cathedral from 1662 until his death in 1682, was probably a son of either Alfonso or Henry. In 1671 he took the degree of Mus.B. at Cambridge, ‘per literas regias.’ It has been suggested that he may have introduced into the cathedral the ‘Chanting Service’ as it is called, in which the verses are set alternately in a florid motet style and in a simple chant form. ”

“ In the Sacred Harmonic Library many of the manuscript collections made by Barnard for his work are preserved, together with a set of the published part-books, second only to the Hereford set. A very imperfect set is in the British Museum. ”

“ HILTON, JOHN (d. 1657) , musical composer, contributed madrigals to ‘The Triumphs of Oriana,’ 1601, in the index to which he is assigned the degree of Mus.B., though no further proof is forthcoming of his having taken this degree before 1626. The close of his madrigal, ‘Fair Oriana, Beauty's Queen,’ shows such boldness in the use of the device called ‘nota cambiata’ that it is difficult to imagine it to be the work of a tiro in composition. Thomas Oliphant edited two madrigals by Hilton, ‘One April Morn’ and ‘Smooth-flowing Stream,’ which he stated to exist in a manuscript of the date 1610. ”

“ In 1774 he went to London for the production of his opera, ‘Alessandro nell' Indie,’ in which his friend Rauzzini made his first appearance; the opera was only partially successful, since, as Burney says, ‘his name was not sufficiently blazoned to give his opera much éclat, or, indeed, to excite the attention it deserved.’ He did not again visit England for thirteen years, but remained fully occupied in Edinburgh. ”

“ Ayrton, who had not acted in this capacity since the season of 1817 [see Ayrton, William] , was evidently the right person for musical director, as he seems to have conducted an extremely successful season, and to have excited a good deal of sympathy in the musical public on the occasion of his former disagreement with the manager of the opera. It was by him that ‘Don Giovanni’ was introduced to English audiences. At first Ebers became the lessee of the King's Theatre, for one year only, and on 10 March 1821 the house opened with ‘La Gazza Ladra,’ then heard for the first time in England. ”

“ Burney's very poor opinion of his powers as a violinist was probably not far wrong, although allowance must be made for Burney's well-known antipathy to English musicians. Festing seems to have become the fashion, and must have had very little time for study. From about 1730, too, he was more or less constantly engaged in composition. ”

“ My accident confined me to the kennel for a considerable time, but every care and attention was paid me. My master and John doctored my wound, and Lily brought me my food every day with her own hands. As long as Craven remained in the house, he never failed to accompany her, repeating his regret and good-will towards me; and after he had left us I heard old John observe: "I always thought there was some good in Master Craven; and his brother is as fine a fellow as ever lived, and won't let it drop. The boy is quite changed now. ”

“ Gauntlett was always fearless and outspoken in the expression of his artistic convictions; these were pure and his standard lofty. He was free from all trace of mercantile considerations. He was one of the most eager champions of Gregorian music, and his theories as to its performance and accompaniment were in advance of those held by most of his contemporaries. He was a devoted admirer of the works of Bach, and his playing of that master's organ fugues, &c., as well as his extempore playing, is said to have been exceedingly fine. ”

“ In his criticism of this composer's works Burney was singularly unfortunate, for so far from showing the influence of Handel or the Italian opera to any appreciable extent, the best of them are thoroughly English in character and style, and his ballads, such as ‘Go, Rose,’ and ‘The Bonny Sailor,’ have a perfect right to be included in all collections of national music. In these and in his anthems his melodies are always natural and flowing, while in the latter especially there is no lack of scientific skill or earnestness of purpose. ”

“ A series of lectures on the history of modern music was delivered at the Royal Institution early in 1861. In 1864 Hullah lectured at Edinburgh, but in the next year failed in his candidature for the Reid professorship of music owing to the casting vote of the rector of the university (the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone) , which was given against him. In 1866 and 1867 he conducted the Philharmonic concerts in Edinburgh, and in the latter year received a medal at the Paris Exhibition, but seems to have been mortified by the bestowal of a similar award upon the Chevé system. ”