350 To STRAFFORD I 1 NOVEMBER 1774 Browne4 and me. This morning indeed I was at a very fine concert at old Franks's* at Isleworth, and heard Leoni,6 who pleased me more than anything I have heard these hundred years. There is a full melancholy melody in his voice, though a falsetta, that nothing but a natural voice almost ever compasses. Then he sung songs of Handel in the genuine simple style, and did not put one in pain like rope- dancers. Of the opera I hear a dismal account;7 for I did not go to it to sit in our box8 like an old king dowager by myself. Garrick is treating the town, as it deserves and likes to be treated, with scenes, fireworks, and his own writing.^ A good new play I never expect to see more, nor have seen since The Provoked Husband,10 which came out when I was at school. Bradshaw11 is dead, they say by his own hand: I don't know where­ fore.12 I was told it was a great political event.13 If it is, our politics run as low as our plays. From town I heard that Lord Bristol14 was

4. Frances Sheldon (1714-90), m. 1 Reign of King George the Third . . . 1771 (1736) Henry Fermor; m. 2 Sir George to 1783, ed. Doran, 1859, ii. 277n). A silver Browne (d. 1754), 3d Bt; HW's corre­ subscription ticket owned in 1936 by spondent (MORE 49, n. 4). Her cottage at Frederick Charles Neville identifies HW's Twickenham was called Riverside (MORE box as No. 21. 287, n. 7). 9. Probably a reference to Garrick's epi­ 5. Aaron Franks (ca 1685 or 1692-1777), logue to the Maid of the Oaks (Letters of jeweller and money-lender of London, David Garrick, ed. Little and Kahrl, Cam­ who had a house in Isleworth, where he bridge, Mass., 1963, iii. 967). died 21 Sept. 1777, aged 92 (GM 1777, 10. The Provok'd Husband; or, A Jour­ xlvii. 460) or 85 (Hilda F. Finberg, Jew­ ney lo London by Cibber and Vanbrugh, ish Residents of Eighteenth-Century first acted at Drury Lane 10 Jan. 1728 and Twickenham,' Jewish Flistorical Society published in 1728. For HW's copies, see of England, Transactions Sessions 1945-Hazen Cat. of HW's Lib., No. 936. 1951, xvi. 129-30). See also MANN i. 343 11. Thomas Bradshaw (1733-6 Nov. and n. 3. 1774), of Hampton Court, Middlesex; M.P. 6. The stage name of Myer Lyon (d. Harwich 1767-8, Saltash 1768-May 1772, 1796), Jewish opera singer and cantor; 8 June 1772-6 Nov. 1774; secretary of the uncle and teacher of John Braham (whose Treasury 1767-70; a lord of the Admiralty daughter was Frances, Lady Waldegrave); 1772-4. bankrupt ca 1788; died in Jamaica, where 12. Bradshaw, 'overwhelmed with debts he was cantor to the English and German . . . shot himself (Last Journals i. 407). synagogue (OSSORY i. 217, n. 17). See also OSSORY i. 214, n. 2; HW to Mann 7. The only performance of the season 11 Nov. 1774, MANN viii. 56. had been Sacchini's on 8 Nov. 13. A supporter of the administration, The mediocrity of the singers and danc­ patronized by Lord Barrington and the ers is suggested in London Stage 1660- Duke of Grafton, Bradshaw received a 1800 pt 4, ed. G. W. Stone, Carbondale, pension of £1500 a year; after his death 111., 1962, iii. 1831-2, 1847-8 ff. his widow and two younger sons and a 8. Box No. 3 on the ground tier, which daughter received pensions (Sir Lewis Na­ HW shared with Conway, Lady Ailesbury, mier and John Brooke, House of Com­ Lady Strafford, and Lord Hertford, ac­ mons 1754-1790, 1964, ii. 111). cording to a ground plan owned in 1859 14. George William Hervey (1721-75), by Dr John Doran (HW's Journal of the 2d E. of Bristol, 1751.