A mind like Constable’s, united to a nervous temperament so sensitive, could not be indifferent to music. In his youth he was a good flute player, but he laid the instrument aside as he found that painting required his whole attention. Preferring simplicity and expression to an ostentatious display of art, I remember that, at a musical party during a trio in Italian, with which his ears were stunned, and which was only fit for the vast area of the Opera House, he whispered to me, ‘I dare say it is very fine, for it is very disagreeable; but if these people were to make such a noise before your door or mine, we should send for the police to take them away.’ << less