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CHAPTER 7: RANELAGH GARDENS

The Ranelagh Gardens season was an easy one for Beard to combine with his work at the theatre. Many of the musicians were the same, as well as the composers. The audience, too, came from the same social strata – from Royalty, via the aristocracy, down to the well-heeled and the nouveau riche: anyone, indeed who could afford the 2s 6d entrance fee.1 The music that they would have heard would be similar to the interval music at the London theatres, mixed together with even more ephemeral songs and ballads that scarcely outlived one season. So many of these were published subsequently, together with the names of the performer (e.g. ‘as sung by Mr Beard at Ranelagh Gardens’), that together they compose a very solid corpus of contemporary music.2 But, like pop-songs today, they were here today and gone tomorrow. Beard’s job of learning all this new material was one of the reasons that he was paid good money by the directors of the Gardens.

insert ‘Myrtilla’ song-sheet, with heading “sung by Mr Beard at Ranelagh”

Ranelagh had sprung up in the early 1740s as a more up-market version of Vauxhall and Marylebone Gardens. These had been offering food, drink and music in an elaborate garden setting since the mid-1730s. Their one drawback was that most of the entertainment was provided out of doors. Although they each built large supper rooms in which the entertainment could be carried on in bad weather, there are many reports of shoes and expensive clothes being ruined by rain and puddles, despite the management laying down a ‘platform entirely covered in’ to enable them to circumvent the worst areas.3 Ranelagh turned the idea of the Pleasure Gardens on its head and made the principal feature an elegant Rotunda of vast proportions. At an internal diameter of 150 feet and an external of 185 it was ‘inferior to few publick buildings in Europe’; and at ‘near twenty feet more in diameter than the Rotunda at Rome’ it was ‘covered with a most excellent contriv’d roof’.4 The rotunda was where the fine assembly gathered for their refreshment, and for the evening concert. Exercise was taken by promenading around in a circle,5 since the vast expanse of ceiling was supported by an elaborate central construction in the hub of the building, which was originally designated the ‘orchestra’.

insert Canaletto painting of the interior

If it was intended to house the musicians, as in a similar out-door construction at Vauxhall (which can be seen in contemporary views by Canaletto, Rowlandson and others), it was quickly found to be unsatisfactory. As any modern acoustics expert could have predicted, the Rotunda was not a good place to hear well. As with the Royal Albert Hall, which was modelled on the Ranelagh building, it was found that a circular building was a boomy and echoey environment in which to listen to music. In addition, the practice was to keep walking about; sometimes going away from the source of the sound, and sometimes approaching it.

1 Sir John Fielding said that the Gardens were ‘seldom frequented by any below middle rank’. Mollie Sands, ‘Invitation to Ranelagh’, London, 1946, p.33 2 See Appendix 7 3 Mollie Sands, ‘The Eighteenth-Century Pleasure Gardens of Marylebone 1737-1777’, The Society for Theatre Research, 1987, p. 69 4 Mollie Sands, ‘Invitation to Ranelagh’, London, 1946, p. 17 5 “The numbers of people who are generally assembled here, and who are walking round and round, present a curious sight”. Count Frederick Kielmansegge, ‘Diary of a Journey to London in the years 1761-2’, London, 1902, p.23 137

Right in front of the musicians, where music-lovers did indeed stop – there were no actual seats for an audience. The only seats were in the two tiers of boxes, where the refreshments were served. The Gentleman’s Magazine set the scene as follows: “Groups of well-dressed persons were disposed in the boxes, numbers covered the area. All manner of refreshments were within call; and music of all kinds echoed (though not intelligibly) from those elegant retreats where Pleasure seemed to beckon her wanton followers”. That was written in 1742, the year the gardens opened. Fortunately for the musicians initially hired to provide the musical entertainment, the orchestra was relocated to one of the four entrance porticoes, and the central building - which can also be seen clearly in Canaletto’s painting of 1754 and contemporary prints - found a use as a servery.6

Although the Rotunda was the main feature, and the Garden’s major asset in coping with the British weather, it was surrounded by pleasant grounds with gravelled walks. As at Vauxhall these were enlivened by water-features, lakes, a canal, exotic temples and gazebos.

insert Print of exterior of Ranelagh c. 1750

On specific occasions there was outdoor music, either from the ‘chinese’ temple on an island in the lake, or from boats on the canal. It was from this island that fireworks were set off at the conclusion of the evening Balls, Ridottos and Masquerades.7 The shady walks, lined with elms and yews, led down to an attractive frontage overlooking the river Thames. Many guests made their way there by boat, rather than risk the traffic jams and footpads that made a journey down ‘The King’s New Road’ a sometimes daunting experience.8 The Proprietors did all they could to make a visit to Chelsea a pleasant experience, and even supplied ‘a sufficient Guard within and without the House and Gardens to prevent any Disorders or Indecencies, and to oblige Persons guilty immediately to quit the Place’. More to the point an armed Guard patrolled the badly-lit approach roads.

It is difficult to reconstruct a typical week at Ranelagh, as the information is often lacking. The Gardens customarily announced in the Press when they would be open. At the beginning of the season there would be ‘Breakfasts’ with live music; but there is very little information on the music that was played. As it served as background music the musicians most probably relied on the staple fare that was played before the plays (the ‘First Musicke’ and ‘Second Musicke’) at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. This consisted of Handel Opera Overtures; the Concerti Grossi of Corelli and Handel; and music by popular Italian composers such as Geminiani and Pasquali. As a competitor to Vauxhall it achieved its aim, and also attracted a better class of client by making its entrance costs higher than any other garden’s. Horace Walpole was able to declare: “It has totally beat Vauxhall. My Lord Chesterfield is so fond of it, that he says he has ordered all his letters to be directed thither. If you had never see it, I would make you a most pompous description of it, and tell you ...that you can’t set your foot without treading on a Prince of Wales or Duke of Cumberland. The company is universal; there is from his Grace of Grafton down to Children out of the Foundling Hospital – from my Lady Townshend to the kitten”.9

6 “In the centre is a large open fireplace, serving to give the necessary warmth as well as to supply hot water.” Count Frederick Kielmansegge, op. cit., p.23 7 “The large and pretty garden ...is seldom used except for fireworks; ...but notwithstanding this, you occasionally come across couples there, as it is always lighted up”. Count Frederick Kielmansegge, op. cit., p. 24 8 “To Ranelagh, where saw several friends, saw at Ranelagh Beard’s Night, ‘L’Allegro and Penseroso’... our two coaches for a good hour and ½ could not get 200 yds”. - from ‘The Diary of John Baker’, London, 1931, p. 125 9 Mollie Sands, ‘Invitation to Ranelagh’, London, 1946, p.42 138

Ranelagh opened with a ‘Public Breakfast’ on April 5th 1742. Its evening concerts, which included vocal items, commenced on May 24th.10 This pattern was to suit Beard, who still had commitments at the theatre until mid-May. But it is often clear from his diary that the two contracts of engagement overlapped. When he first began to be the male vocalist there is not so easy to determine. The newspaper advertisements announced the beginning and end of the season, and highlighted exceptional Balls and Masquerades, but never mentioned the names of the performers. Such infomation has had to be dug up from other sources. Thus, we can be sure that Beard was the vocalist by the Spring of 1746 as a note in the margin of the Winston m/s for 1744-52 11 itemises what was happening in the months when the London theatres were closed. In 1746 there is a listing for Ranelagh, with the comment ‘Beard sung there’. The Winston m/s also indicates that in 1746 the season started on Monday April 20th with Breakfasts, that the evening concerts commenced on May 15th (two days after Beard’s last performance in the Covent Garden season), and that there was a Ball on June 5th.

In 1747 the Winston m/s is less detailed; but it appears to indicate that the Ranelagh season was open for Breakfasts (with instrumental music) on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; and that Concerts, running from 7pm to 10pm took place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This is the first information we have that Beard was only obliged to sing on three evenings a week. The timetable in 1748 is a little different. The Breakfasts now commenced in March, and there was a concert every morning in Passion Week. The evening entertainments commenced on Monday May 2nd but were halted between July 6th and August 15th. This year it seems that the evening concert was held between 5pm and 9pm, and the season closed on September 10th. In 1748 Beard commenced his new contract at Garrick’s Drury Lane theatre on September 10th. As he was in the after-piece The Lottery he would just have had time to make it from Ranelagh to Drury Lane as long as his vocal items were first in the programme. The mid-summer closure seems to have been something of a custom, because it is repeated in 1749, occurring between July 21st and August 26th. In this year the evening concerts began on May 21st (Beard’s last theatre appearance was on May 17th) and the season closed on September 15th. As his first performance at Drury Lane was on September 21st things worked out more conveniently this year.

In this Ranelagh season (1749) Beard negotiated a leave of absence of about a week, from at least July 1st to the 4th. His good friend William Boyce had been invited to Cambridge to receive a Doctorate, and his colleague Maurice Greene had arranged a three day Boyce Festival at the Senate House and Great St Mary’s Church in celebration. Apart from the festival of Handel’s music, which accompanied Oxford University’s ‘Public Act’ in July 1733, this was the first-ever one-man festival. Beard went along as guest vocalist, and sang in each of the three concerts. According to the London papers, there were ‘near a hundred Vocal and Instrumental Performers’ involved, including choral singers from the Chapel Royal, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and St George’s Windsor. The two named soloists, who would have the lion’s share of the work in the cantata Solomon, were Beard and Miss Turner, accompanied by ‘upwards of thirty Musicians from the Opera-House’. The other pieces in which there was solo work for Beard were The Secular Masque, Peleus and Thetis, and the Ode ‘Here all thy active fires defuse’ which was especially composed for the installation of the Duke of Newcastle as Chancellor of the University on July 1st. Beard was to remember the potential displayed in The Secular Masque when Garrick revived John Fletcher’s play The Pilgrim in 1750. Boyce had set a text taken from this play, and it was very effectively put

10 ‘Twice a week there are to be ridottos with tickets price one guinea, which would include supper and music’. Mollie Sands, ‘Invitation to Ranelagh’, London, 1946, p.39 11 T. a. 55 (7) at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, USA 139 back into the new production. The six Gods of the masque are all well characterised musically, and sing some memorable music. Beard’s aria, ‘The Song of Momus to Mars’, is still popular with singers today.

insert music page of ‘Song of Momus to Mars’

The Winston m/s is helpful in identifying the other singers employed at Ranelagh alongside Beard. There was always a female vocalist – and sometimes more than one. In every season from 1748 – 1752 Beard was joined by Signora Frasi and Mrs Storer. Mrs Storer came in initially to take part in some songs and duets composed by Festing for the 1748 season.12 Festing had already collaborated with the actor William Havard in 1746, when the latter provided him with the text for an ‘Ode upon the return of His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland from Scotland”. As we know from the Winston m/s that Beard was the vocalist, it must have been he who gave this its one and only performance in August, soon after the victor of Culloden’s return.

Another Ode was performed by Beard in 1750.13 This time the composer was Boyce and the dedicatee was Frederick Louis, the Prince of Wales. ‘Strike, strike the lyre’ is for a solo voice and an orchestra of trumpet, wind, strings and continuo, and was performed at Ranelagh as a belated birthday tribute. The Prince’s birthday was in January. Despite some fulsome phrases predicting a long life:

In George’s reign our joys can fear no blast And Frederick gives assurances they shall last the Prince disobligingly died on March 20th 1751. Nothing daunted, the team of William Havard, poet, and Boyce, composer reassembled to honour the newly created Prince of Wales, George (later George III), who had so recently lost his father. An Ode ‘Let grief subside’ was accordingly performed in honour of his 13th birthday on May 24th 1751. A similar tribute was paid the following year, when the same team of poet, composer and singers performed ‘Another passing year is flown’ on May 25th 1752. In both of these odes Boyce added two Horns to the instrumentation. A decade later it was the Ranelagh horns that so excited the eight-year-old Mozart that he wrote parts for them into his very first symphonies.

In 1751 George Harris went to Ranelagh on May 18th. The entertainments had started on the 15th, and once again he found himself very critical of Beard, not even deigning to mention him by name: “...through the park to Ranelagh Gardens ...very indifferent music, especially as to the vocal. – It began a little after six & ended at ten o’clock”.14

Some of the ‘indifferent’ music that Beard was singing at this time were the ‘Masquerade Song’ “Ye medley of mortals that make up this throng” with a text by Garrick; and various ballads like ‘Sing tantarara masks all’, ‘Myrtilla’, and William Boyce’s ‘The Non Pareil’, and ‘On the banks, gentle Stour’ which managed to stay in the repertoire from season to season.

insert musical example: ‘On thy banks, gentle Stour’

12 Festing ‘6 songs & a dialogue with a Duet, sung at Ranelagh House by Mr Beard & Mrs Storer’, London 1748 13 Although not dated, this Ode was written on paper with the same watermark as Boyce’s Romeo and Juliet dirge of 1750. Robert J. Bruce, ‘William Boyce: some manuscript recoveries’, Music & Letters, 55, 1974, p. 440 14 Burrows & Dunhill, ‘Music and Theatre in Handel’s world’, Oxford, 2002, p. 277 140

There was also a taste for regional music. The Welsh harper John Parry, whom Beard invited to perform at his Benefit night in March 1753, came with him to Ranelagh where his harp must have sounded very pleasing in the echoing room. Beard sang the Welsh song ‘The Lass of the Mill’ with him; and his repertoire at this time also included the Irish ballad ‘Aileen Aroon’,15 and the Scottish ‘The Highland Laddie’.16 Some of the most popular Ranelagh songs were printed first of all in The Gentleman’ Magazine, or as supplements to the London Magazine or the Universal Magazine. There must have been an enormous appetite for these trifles – perhaps as music to be played over of an evening, or danced to, by the younger generation in their elaborately formal courtship rituals – because even the most insignificant pieces were quickly anthologised and published.

insert ‘Bumpers Squire Jones’ from the Gentleman’s Magazine where it will be seen that instructions are given for the steps to a dance

In 1753 Henrietta died in their Chelsea lodgings during the Ranelagh season. Beard must have been seriously affected by this loss, and obliged to cancel several appearances. It is evident from Havard’s letters that he was taking things badly. In one undated letter to Jack Armstrong he writes “...I think Johnny Beard and I are both obliged to you ...for the Solicitude you have shown, in his present situation, to give him relief...... I have received no answer from Johnny, nor, in his situation, do I greatly expect any: I hope he is in health and that you see him often. I shall write to him again by next post, meantime assure him of my love and warmest regards...” As Henrietta had died on May 31st it is more than likely that Havard had moved out of London and taken employment for the summer months in a provincial theatre – either Jacob’s Wells Theatre Bristol, or at Richmond and Twickenham – where he found work most years. This would have prevented him from being at Beard’s side, like Armstrong, at this sad time. In another letter, written this time to Beard himself, Havard hopes that he has recovered from the loss sufficiently “...to feel and enjoy the return of his wonted peace of mind. It was the severest trial you could have experienced in this life, and the surmounting it should be esteem’d the greatest triumph. ...I have been favoured with two letters from honest Ben Read: in one of them he acquaints me that the Ranelagh Managers are dispos’d to offer you a Benefit – should the Profits of it amount to what I wish, they will not, however, exceed what you deserve...”17 Beard did get the Benefit Night, and Appendix 1 shows what pieces we know were performed and on what dates. The list is sadly incomplete, and only includes the period 1758-1762 because of the lack of detailed advertisements in the daily press. But the quotations from the above letters suggest that the first year in which he would have taken a Benefit would have been 1753, in the month following Henrietta’s death, possibly on the 13th June. All his subsequent Benefits were taken on Wednesdays in the period June 11th - 14th.

1754 was a bad year for Ranelagh, because the Proprietors were refused a music licence. This came about because of the wide remit of a new Act for ‘regulating places of entertainment and punishing persons keeping disorderly houses’. Although it was not brought in to interrupt legitimate entertainments at a high class establishment like Ranelagh, it was not until November that the problem could be sorted out and the licence re-obtained. The Gardens remained open for Breakfasts and promenades; but their entertainments of ‘Recitations’ were a poor substitute. The provision of a new Ode on the birthday of the Prince of Wales was also affected. There must have been many out-of-work musicians that Summer.

15 Aileen Aroon appears in Burke Thumoth's ‘Twelve Scotch and Twelve Irish Airs With Variations’ (circa 1740). It's original Gaelic title was Eilionóir a Rúin 16 Mollie Sands, ‘Invitation to Ranelagh’, London, 1946, p.55 17 ‘Jeu d’esprit’, N.a.2 pp. 97-99, Folger Shakespeare Library 141

When the information in the Winston m/s runs out the later seasons at Ranelagh can be traced through the newspaper advertisements. The female singers were subject to change, but Beard was always employed. From at least as early as 1758 the favourite soprano was Catherine (Kitty) Fourmantel. John Baker was a regular visitor in 1758 and found her to be the only soloist employed there on May 8th.18 This was because the Drury Lane season had not yet ended, and Beard was employed that night in a double bill of Dryden’s Amphitryon and Arne’s Britannia. When Baker returned on June 13th 1759 he attended Beard’s Benefit night and heard L’Allegro ed il Penseroso. He had missed Beard’s 1758 Benefit, on June 14th, which had been the equally popular Handel Masque of Acis and Galatea.

Ranelagh became a popular venue for fund-raising concert during the summer months when the theatres were closed. In June 1757 John Stanley conducted a performance of Acis and Galatea for the Benefit of the Marine Society; and in 1758 a concert performance of The Beggar’s Opera was staged ‘for the benefit of some actors who formerly belonged to the theatres’. The takings on that occasion, June 22nd, were £102 which was subsequently shared out between six recipients. In 1760 the charity was an Asylum for Orphan Girls and the work was a rare outing for Thomas Arne’s masque The Judgement of Paris. These all had fine roles for Beard. In two successive seasons the entire Ranelagh orchestra and singers decamped for the day to Stoke Newington. On July 18th 1758, and again on 19th July 1759 there was a Benefit Concert at Mrs Butter’s Boarding School.19 The programmes were the easily transportable masques of Acis and Galatea and Boyce’s Solomon that were so frequently called into service at this time. The soloists included Miss Young, Beard and Champness; the concert started at 5pm, and tickets were 5s. Quite how this concert came about, and who the Matthew Hussey was who organised the event has not yet been discovered: but he is likely to have been involved in the London musical scene.20

One of Beard’s more unusual roles at Ranelagh was in a spoof Ode to St Cecilia with a text by Bonnell Thornton. Dr Johnson – according to Boswell – “praised its humour and seemed much diverted with it”.21 Bonnell had written his burlesque ‘Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day, adapted to the ancient British Musick: the Salt Box, the Jew’s Harp, the Marrow Bones and Cleaver, the Hum Strum or Hurdy-Gurdy’ in 1749. Johnson heard a performance in 1763, but it was first heard at Ranelagh in about 1758. The date is vague because Charles Burney misremembered the date when he wrote: “In 1769 [recte 1758? – see footnote 21] I set, for Smart and Newbery, Thornton’s burlesque Ode on St Cecilia’s Day. It was performed at Ranelagh in masks, to a very crowded audience, as I was told. ...Beard sung the salt-box song, which was admirably accompanied on that instrument by Brent, the Fencing-master, and father of Miss [Charlotte] Brent, the celebrated singer; Skeggs on the broomstick, as bassoon; and a remarkable performer on the Jew’s-harp. – “Buzzing twangs the iron lyre”. Cleavers were cast in bell-metal for this entertainment. All the performers of The Old Woman’s Oratory,22 employed by [Samuel] Foote, were, I believe, employed at Ranelagh on this occasion.”23

18 “...only Miss Fromantel sang”. ‘The Diary of John Baker’, London, 1931, p.109 19 Information from Simon McVeigh, ‘Calendar of London Concerts advertised in the London daily press’, Goldsmiths College, University of London, 2003 - 20 There were several Husseys in London working as dancers in 1757, including T. Hussey and ‘Master Hussey’. See ‘The London Stage’, Part 4, vol. 2, p. 610 21 Boswell, ‘Life of Johnson’, London, 1799, ed. G.B. Hill, rev. L.F. Powell, Oxford, 1934, Vol. 1, p. 420 22 The Old Woman’s Oratory was a theatrical parody first staged by Smart & Newbery in December 1751, and repeated at the Haymarket Theatre in May & June 1758. It also featured performances on the Salt Box, Jew’s Harp, broomstick and other burlesque instruments. It is likely that the performance of Burney’s musical setting 142

The 18th century audience obviously joined with Dr Johnson in finding this spoof of the usual Purcellian or Handelian St Cecilia Ode hilarious. They would have enjoyed Thornton’s Preface, signed (à la Hoffnung) ‘Fustian Sackbut’, of which this is just a sample: “If this Ode contributes in the least to lessen our False Taste in admiring that Foreign Musick now so much in vogue, and to recall the ancient British Spirit, together with the ancient British Harmony, I shall not think the pains I employed in the composition entirely flung away on my Countrymen”.24 The nearest similarity to anything that a modern audience can imagine would be a Gerard Hoffnung concert, a performance of Leopold Mozart’s Toy Symphony given by ‘personalities’, or some of the light-hearted shindigs at a Last Night of the Proms.

In June 1763 Beard returned to Ranelagh Gardens, where he was no longer a regular vocalist, at the invitation of the musical director Thomas Arne for a revival of the famous performance. This is the one that amused Dr Johnson. The Monthly Review entered into the spirit by printing a tongue-in-cheek review, and describing it as “written some years ago in the genuine spirit of true English humour, and lately set to music in as masterly a strain as it was written ...It happened a little unfortunately, indeed, in the late performance of this Ode, that the public ear, vitiated by being so long accustomed to foreign instruments, and foreign music, was not properly affected by the delicate and harmonious sounds of the Jews-harp and the Hum-strum. When this Ode is performed again, therefore, we would advise it to be done in a less tumultuous assembly; or that an additional number of Harp-trillers, and hurdy-gurdy Strummers, may be added to the band”.25 There is just a suspicion, here, that the performance did not project well into Ranelagh’s awkward acoustic. Dr Johnson must have been close to the performers to get all the jokes and be much “diverted with it”. The music eventually found its way into print sometime in the late 1760s, and was ascribed to ‘an eminent master’.26

Another humorous work that Beard sang at Ranelagh was the Medley that David Garrick wrote for him, for his 1762 Benefit Night. This has fortunately been preserved for us in Tate Wilkinson’s autobiography “The Wandering Patentee”. Garrick wrote humorous and satirical verses, gently mocking both Beard and his Ranelagh audience, and set them to tunes that the audience would have associated with Beard – such as “Britons strike home”, “Nancy Dawson” and other Beggar’s Opera melodies. One can imagine that audiences were prepared to laugh at themselves on light-hearted occasions like this, when they heard Beard sing

But here they do come, and here they do agree, / Sing trolly, lolly, lolly, lolly, lo, For they can’t abide themselves, the company, nor me, / Ho, ho! let ‘em go, let ‘em go.

The whole text can be found in Appendix 8. Some of the allusions are less comprehensible today than others. But something of the original atmosphere of a company crowded into the hall ready to support their favourite singer at his Benefit can be gleaned from lines like this:

I can only thankful be / You can have nothing at all from me, But a squeez’d-up seat, and a dish of my tea, / And an olio of speeches and quavers.

At some stage John Beard himself composed songs for the Ranelagh concerts. The British Library contains one song for which he had written the words, and one for which he wrote took place with the same performers in 1758. See: ‘Memoirs of Dr. Charles Burney’, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1988, pp. 131 23 ‘Memoirs of Dr. Charles Burney’, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1988, pp. 130 24 Alan Dugald McKillop, ‘Bonnell Thornton’s Burlesque Ode’, Notes and Queries, 23rd July 1949, p. 322 25 The Monthly Review, XXVIII, 1763, p. 481 26 Alan Dugald McKillop, ‘Bonnell Thornton’s Burlesque Ode’, Notes and Queries, 23rd July 1949, p. 324 143 both words and music. The earlier of the two is the song ‘Fairest Creature thou’rt so charming’ with music (according to the heading) by the organist Renatus Harris. This has been dated to the 1730s – so it belongs to the beginning stages of Beard’s career.27 It would be very apposite if it could be proved to date from around 1738, when it might have been penned as a love-letter to Henrietta in their courtship:

Fairest Creature thou’rt so charming none for Beauty can compare [;] No that Goddess all admiring was not half so lovely fair. So bright a Genius none could boast on mixt with an engaging Air, Freed from any vile Delusion Practised oft among the Fair.

insert ‘Fairest Creature’ music

The later song is ‘Cross Purposes’, for which he was entirely responsible. The composition is no more distinguished than that of many other similar songs. But it shows that he put his musical tuition from his days as a chorister at the Chapel Royal to good use, where they were taught “to sing, to play on the harpsichord or Organ ...and compose.” As yet it is not known in which season this was first premiered by its author at the Pleasure Gardens for which he remained the principal male vocalist until at least 1762.

insert ‘Cross Purposes’ music

27 There is a problem regarding the likelihood of Beard and the elder Renatus Harris’ lives coinciding, as Harris died c. 1724 when Beard would have only been nine. Harris’ son John (d. 1743) lived in Red Lion Street c. 1728-9, - also the street in which the Beard family lived, and where this family friendship may have been forged.