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REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO GEORGE II. |
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desiring him to correct the bass, which was not proper; and at your father's request, Mr. Smith wrote another bass in correct harmony.' Mr. Smith, to whom I read your letter this day, repeated the same account, and on his authority I pledge myself for the truth of the statement.—H. Harington."
The proof of Carey's having sung it in 1740 (five years before it became generally known), rests upon the evidence of Mr. Townsend, who in 1794 stated to Mr. John Ashley, of Bath, that his father dined with Henry Carey at a tavern in Cornhill, in the year 1740, at a meeting convened to celebrate Admiral Vernon's capture of Portobello, and that " Carey sang it on that occasion." He adds that " the applause he received was very great, especially when he announced it to be his own composition." (Vide Ashley's letter to the Rev. W. L. Bowles, 1828.) This receives some confirmation from the writer of a letter to the Gentleman's Magazine, in 1796, who says, " The first time I ever heard the anthem of' God save the King,' was about the year 1740, on some public occasion at a tavern in Cornhill."
7. Now as to the claim of Dr. John Bull.
This was first suggested by the writer of the following letter in the Gentleman's Magazine, dated from W—m Hall, Sep. 9,1816.
" In Ward's Lives of Professors of Gresham College, page 200, it is stated that Dr. John Bull was, in 1596, chosen first Professor of Music in Gresham College, and that he was chief organist to King James I.; and at p. 201, it states that in 1607 he resigned his professorship, but lived in England until 1613, when he went abroad, and did not return: then follows a list of his musical works in manuscript, in the possession of Dr. Pepusch; among them, at p. 205, is ' God save tho King.' I think it is somewhere said, that these manuscripts of Dr. Bull, as in Dr. Pe'pnsch's collection, were placed in Sion College. If this be so, the reference is easy: and if the tune there, be the same with the popular air all Englishmen hear with pleasure, the enquiry is set at rest; and it will be no stretch of imagination to suppose, that it was brought forward in compliment to King James I., when, according to the anecdote, Dr. Bull played before him at Merchant Tailors' Hall, upon a small pair of organs. If the tune be different, Mr. Carey will have a stronger claim from the enquiry to be considered as the author of the favorite air : one claimant will be struck off the list."—" R.S."
The late Richard Clark, one of the Gentlemen of Her Majesty's Chapels Royal, had published an account of " God save the King " in the preface to " Poetry of the most favorite Glees, Madrigals, Duets, &c." two years before the appearance of this letter, and he had then given Henry Carey the credit of the authorship; but in 1822, he produced another Account of the National Anthem, transferring it to Dr. Bull, without having even seen the manuscript." The errors in Clark's book have already been so frequently exposed, that it will only be necessary to allude to one of his mis-representations in the present enquiry. At p. 57, he |
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* Tiiis is proved not only by his note on " God save the King," in the hook, but also by the following passage in his circular addressed to the " Masters, Wardens," &c, of the City Companies, one of which is now before me, dated November, 1841. After alluding to his publication of |
1822, he says, " I continued ray enquiries until eventually I was enabled to obtain a sight of, and finally to purchase (in the handwriting of the composer, Dr. John Bull) this long-lost manuscript." Clark purchased it in 1840. |
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