Note 174 — TINTERNE ABBEY. (continued 2)

The Signor left the banks of the Wye the day after relating the preceding anecdote, or the narrator would have shared another experiment with him. “While at Derby, however, it is related that such was the wonderful power of his imitative faculties, that he far outsoared the violins when playing in alt, whose masters laid them down in the orchestra in astonishment at being so entirely eclipsed by a human voice. They next played a hunting song, in which the signor appeared to equal advantage. The rich and mellow tones of the French horn were as successfully imitated, as the still finer and more distinct ones of the violins; and in some shakes he quite enraptured his audience. They then played a full piece together, which was such a grand display of his talents, that the admiration and delight of his auditors could go no further—they seemed electrified by his powers.”