After supper we had a long dish of musical talk relative to my history. All his Etruscan and other antiquities not sent to England are at Naples. He says nothing is allowed to be copied at Portici, and not a pencil suffered to appear there, and of him the Neapolitans are more suspicious and jealous than of any one else. I wished very much to have a bit of the Greek MSS. recovered on music - tho’ a satire against it - but till the court publishes it nothing can be obtained, no more than of the entire ancient instruments found in Herculaneum and Pompej. However, I shall get a sight of them and be enabled to judge of their construction and the correctness with which they are copied in the books given a way by the King to most of the crowned heads and universities in Europe. M. H. will give me letters to the governor of each conservatorio at Naples and comes thither himself on Monday, when I am invited to a concert made on purpose for me at his house in order to give me an opportunity of hearing Barbella and the best performers of Naples and conversing with the cleverest people. Mrs H. has a very neat finger and plays the harpsichord with great delicacy, expression and taste. Mr. H. is likewise a pretty good performer on the violin; but are both so tired of the music of the Neapolitans as to be glad to return to that of Corelli, LGeminianij, Handel, Vivaldi etc for the sake of harmony and variety - indeed the general run of Neapolitan music is noisy and monotonous, but while such composers as Jomelli, Piccini, Merula, Mann[a], Paesiello etc are in it one would think no complaint need be made of a scarcity of good music. - The mountain was very turbulent all night. << less