“Toward Charing Cross comes, in shovel-hat and cassock, the renowned ecclesiastic Dean Swift.  He has just nodded patronizingly to Bononcini in the Strand, and suddenly meets Handel, who cuts him dead.  Nothing disconcerted, the dean moves on, muttering his famous epigram: 

     ’Some say that Signor Bononcini,
     Compared to Handel, is a ninny;
     While others vow that to him Handel
     Is hardly fit to hold a candle. 
     Strange that such difference should be
     ‘Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee.’

“As Handel enters the ‘Turk’s Head’ at the corner of Regent Street, a noble coach and four drives up.  It is the Duke of Chandos, who is inquiring for Mr. Pope.  Presently a deformed little man, in an iron-gray suit, and with a face as keen as a razor, hobbles out, makes a low bow to the burly Handel, who, helping him into the chariot, gets in after him, and they drive off together to Cannons, the duke’s mansion at Edge-ware.  There they meet Mr. Addison, the poet Gay, and the witty Arbuthnot, who have been asked to luncheon.  The last number of the Spectator is on the table, and a brisk discussion soon arises between Pope and Addison concerning the merits of the Italian opera, in which Pope would have the better if he only knew a little more about music, and could keep his temper.  Arbuthnot sides with Pope in favor of Mr. Handel’s operas; the duke endeavors to keep the peace.  Handel probably uses his favorite exclamation, ‘Vat te tevil I care!’ and consumes the recherche wines and rare viands with undiminished gusto.

“The Magnificent, or the Grand Duke, as he was called, had built himself a palace for L230,000.  He had a private chapel, and appointed Handel organist in the room of the celebrated Dr. Pepusch, who retired with excellent grace before one manifestly his superior.  On week-days the duke and duchess entertained all the wits and grandees in town, and on Sundays the Edgeware Road was thronged with the gay equipages of those who went to worship at the ducal chapel and hear Mr. Handel play on the organ.

“The Edgeware Road was a pleasant country drive, but parts of it were so solitary that highwaymen were much to be feared.  The duke was himself attacked on one occasion; and those who could afford it never traveled so far out of town without armed retainers.  Cannons was the pride of the neighborhood, and the duke—­of whom Pope wrote,

     ’Thus gracious Chandos is beloved at sight’—­

was as popular as he was wealthy.  But his name is made still more illustrious by the Chandos anthems.  They were all written at Cannons between 1718 and 1720, and number in all eleven overtures, thirty-two solos, six duets, a trio, quartet, and forty-seven choruses.  Some of the above are real masterpieces; but, with the exception of ’The waves of the sea rage horribly,’ and ‘Who is God but the Lord?’ few of them are ever heard now.  And yet these anthems were most significant in the variety of the choruses and in the range of the accompaniments; and it was then, no doubt, that Handel was feeling his way toward the great and immortal sphere of his oratorio music.  Indeed, his first oratorio, ‘Esther,’ was composed at Cannons, as also the English version of ’Acis and Galatea.’”