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sibly have supposed it to be serious. A
solo on the coarsest double base that was
ever played upon, would have been mel-
lifluous, by comparison.
After him, a middling counter-tenor
sung, which even so strong a foil could
not make agreeable; and then another
soprano, not at all a hopeless subject:
his voice was well toned, and he had a
little improvable shake. In short, this
was the only promising singer that I had
heard for two days. But to the bad
voices, so slovenly, ignorant, and unfi-
nished a manner was added, that the
people were sung out of the church as
fast as they came in. There was a young
man who played solo parts in the ritor-
nels with a kind of clarinet, which they
call at Naples a vox humana; another
on the trumpet, and a third on the haut-
bois; but in an incorrect and uninterest-
ing manner. The boys who sung had
very poor cadences to their songs, which,
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