... I adjouned in the evening to the oratorio of Sampson at Drury Lane then conducted by Stanley, whose back as he sat at the organ was present as conspicuously to the audience as his predecessor Mr Handel's used to be upon the same occasion, the space in front being not then filled as at present by a numerous group of chorus singers besides the principals.- Poor Stanley was then also frequently obliged to comfort himself as his predecessor did in the same predicament, viz. when the house was thin, the music wo'd sound the better, which was so much the case when we now went, that tho' the first part was I believe over, we had at going into the pit the choice of several rows of benches quite empty. Tho' this might be partly accounted for from the high prices then of the Oratorios (the boxes being 10/6, pit 5s. etc.) yet I believe after the great Handels decease the taste for oratorios gradually declin'd 'till the grand Commemoration of Handel in 1784. when the wonderful effect given to his sublime compositions, & choruses in particular brought them into more general admiration then ever... << less