Page:Pen And Pencil Sketches - Volume I.djvu/32

when speaking it. He had some knowledge of music and played the violoncello. On many an evening after business hours, he and uncle and a friend of theirs — he with his cello, they with violins — would play Corelli’s sonatas in the long loft, which seemed longer and gloomily mysterious illumined only by the lamps or candles of their music stands. I remember perfectly some of the airs — notably, “The Tombstone Jig!” Where is Corelli now ? Is he considered old-fashioned and out of date ? I have seldom heard his works performed since those early days. Fond of all games, from chess and billiards to backgammon, he was also^ a bit of a sportsman and a good shot. For many years in the beginning of September he used to stay for a week or fortnight with a friend who owned a farm at Bassingbourne in Cambridge- shire. I accompanied him on one or two of these expeditions. The first time was in 1837, as is. shown by a book of early drawings my mother preserved, in which there are some of my sketches made at Bassingbourne, and that date written within the cover. A fact of no importance whatever, but I like, when possible, to be correct. We used to drive down, starting early from Langham Place in a two- wheeled chaise drawn by a pony, a great favourite of my father’s, named “Bess.” Our luggage was in the “well” of the chaise, the gun-case strapped on