Fifth Viscount Torrington in Conwy - 2 August, 1793

from A Tour to North Wales, 1793, page 272:

I stay’d out as long as possible, e’r I return’d to my cold meat, with the best pickled salmon I ever tasted for supper; and then call’d in the blind harper, Smith for an hour: I think that these gentry are fallen into a lady-like way of playing, and do not rattle away enough; but tickle up their instruments as the great violin players do, till it sounds like a Jews Harp.  He play’d for an hour: that is long enough, more fatigues the ear.

cite as

John Byng, A Tour to North Wales, 1793. In C. Bruyn Andrews (ed.), The Torrington Diaries Containing the Tours Throughout England and Wales of the Hon. John Byng (Later Fifth Viscount Torrington) Between the Years 1781 and 1794, volume 3 (London, 1936), p. 272. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1546594463116 accessed: 16 April, 2024

location of experience: Conwy

Listeners

Fifth Viscount Torrington
Army officer, civil servant, diarist
1743-1813

Listening to

hide composers
Welsh harp music performed by Smith the harper

Experience Information

Date/Time 2 August, 1793
Medium live
Listening Environment indoors, solitary

Originally submitted by lcc5 on Fri, 04 Jan 2019 09:34:23 +0000
Approved on Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:07:07 +0000