so far out of town without armed retainers. Cannons was the pride of the
neighborhood, and the duke--of whom Pope wrote,

'Thus gracious Chandos is beloved at sight'--

was as popular as he was wealthy. But his name is made still more
illustrious by the Chandos anthems. They were all written at Cannons
between 1718 and 1720, and number in all eleven overtures, thirty-two
solos, six duets, a trio, quartet, and forty-seven choruses. Some of the
above are real masterpieces; but, with the exception of 'The waves of
the sea rage horribly,' and 'Who is God but the Lord?' few of them
are ever heard now. And yet these anthems were most significant in the
variety of the choruses and in the range of the accompaniments; and it
was then, no doubt, that Handel was feeling his way toward the great
and immortal sphere of his oratorio music. Indeed, his first oratorio,
'Esther,' was composed at Cannons, as also the English version of 'Acis
and Galatea.'"

But Handel had other associates, and we must now visit Thomas Britton,
the musical coal-heaver. "There goes the famous small-coal man, a lover
of learning, a musician, and a companion of gentlemen." So the folks
used to say as Thomas Britton, the coal-heaver of Clerkenwell Green,
paced up and down the neighboring streets with his sack of small coal on
his back, destined for one of his customers. Britton was great among the
great. He was courted by the most fashionable folk of his day. He was
a cultivated coal-heaver, who, besides his musical taste and ability,
possessed an extensive knowledge of chemistry and the occult sciences.

Britton did more than this. He gave concerts in Aylesbury Street,
Clerkenwell, where this singular man had formed a dwelling-house, with