I found Miss Missenden here; & on the Monday following came Dr. Hague from Cambridge, & Dr. Crotch from Oxford... besides his [Crotch] being an excellent violoncello, his accompaniment on the piano was a great treat. I have often had great enjoyment of music here, but never so great as now -- particularly from our quartetts, which went better than any I ever bore a part in. I wished for you to have seen & heard a very extraordinary thing: a man, neither professing the instrument nor in practice, bowing with his left hand & fingering with his right, on a violoncello strung as usual, playing the most difficult basses of Haydn as well, or nearly so, as any master. All so correct, so perfectly in tune, & giving so exactly the effect intended by the author! But his ear is so quick, & his knowledge of composition so good, that he really can play a passage, by the mere guess of musical instinct, with more effect than most other players do by rule, & teaching, & practice. With Miss Sharp & Miss M. we made a little choir of six voices, &, among other things, sung some of Handel’s choruses with more effect than I could have conceived, Crotch giving the pianoforte almost the fulness & effect of an orchestra by his powerful manner of playing. We also sung glees of all sorts, & among them my two new glees, which went vastly well; &, as they pleased the critical nicety of Dr. Crotch, I may venture to think them passable. They have the honour to be great favourites here. A young lady told me she was sure I must have been in love when I composed them. Several evenings our glees & catches after supper kept us up till between twelve & one. << less