that he was dead without being aware of it.

At the theatre he had no part in what was going on except the
part written for the clarionet. In his young days his house
had been the resort of singers and players. When the fortunes
of the family changed his clarionet was taken away from him, on
the ground that it was a 'low instrument.' It was subsequently
restored to him, but he never played it again.

Of quite a different stamp was one of the characters in
_Going into Society_, who played the clarionet in a band at
a Wild Beast Show, and played it all wrong. He was somewhat
eccentric in dress, as he had on 'a white Roman shirt and a
bishop's mitre covered with leopard skin.' We are told nothing
about him, except that he refused to know his old friends. In
his story of the _Seven Poor Travellers_ Dickens found the
clarionet-player of the Rochester Waits so communicative that
he accompanied the party across an open green called the Vines,

and assisted--in the French sense--at the performance
of two waltzes, two polkas, and three Irish melodies.


_Bassoon_

A notable bassoon player was Mr. Bagnet, who had a voice
somewhat resembling his instrument. The ex-artilleryman
kept a little music shop in a street near the Elephant and
Castle. There were