Soon afterwards Georgiana, Duchess of Sutherland, interested herself in him, and had him placed under Spofforth, the chief singing master of the day, under whose tuition he greatly improved, taking London by storm.  He was for many years the principal bass at all the great musical festivals.  So powerful was his voice, it is said, that on one occasion when he was pursued by a bull he uttered a bellow which so terrified the animal that it ran away, so young ladies who were afraid of these animals always felt safe when accompanied by Mr. Slack.  When singing before King George III at Windsor Castle, he was told that His Majesty had been pleased with his singing.  Slack remarked in his Derbyshire dialect, which he always remembered, “Oh, he was pleased, were he?  I thow’t I could do’t.”  Slack it was said made no effort to improve himself either in speech or in manners, and therefore it was thought that he preferred low society.

When he retired and returned to his native village he was delighted to join the local “Catch and Glee Club,” of which he soon became the ruling spirit.  It held its meetings at the “George Inn” where we had called for refreshments, and we were shown an old print of the club representing six singers in Hogarthian attitudes with glasses, jugs, and pipes, with Slack and his friend Chadwick of Hayfield apparently singing heartily from the same book Slack’s favourite song, “Life’s a Bumper fill’d by Fate.”  Tideswell had always been a musical town; as far back as the year 1826 there was a “Tideswell Music Band,” which consisted of six clarionets, two flutes, three bassoons, one serpent, two trumpets, two trombones, two French horns, one bugle, and one double drum—­twenty performers in all.

They had three practices weekly, and there were the usual fines for those who came late, or missed a practice, for inattention to the leader, or for a dirty instrument, the heaviest fine of all being for intoxication.  But long after this there was a Tideswell Brass Band which became famous throughout the country, for the leader not only wrote the score copies for his own band, but lithographed and sold them to other bands all over the country.

[Illustration:  “LIFE’S A BUMPER.”]

We were particularly interested in all this, for my brother had for the past eight years indulged in the luxury of a brass band himself.  The band consisted of about twenty members when in full strength, and as instruments were dear in those days it was a most expensive luxury, and what it had cost him in instruments, music, and uniforms no one ever knew.  He had often purchased “scores” from Metcalf, the leader of the Tideswell Band, a fact that was rather a source of anxiety to me, as I knew if he called to see Metcalf our expedition for that day would be at an end, as they might have conversed with each other for hours.  I could not prevent him from relating at the “George” one of his early reminiscences, which fairly “brought down the house,” as there were some musicians in the company.