During a visit which, at this time, Dr. Burney made to his old friends and connexions in Norfolk, he spent a week or two with his truly-loved and warmly-admired favourite, Mr. Bewley, of Massingham; whose deep theoretical knowledge of the science, and passion for the art of music, made, now, a sojourn under his roof as useful to the work of the Doctor, as, at all periods, it had been delightful to his feelings.
Of this visit, which took place immediately after one that had been fatiguingly irksome from stately ceremony, he speaks, in his chronological rhymes, in the following manner.
To Bewley retiring, in peace and in quiet,
Where our[44] welcome was hearty, and simple our diet;
Where reason and science all jargon disdain’d,
And humour and wit with philosophy reign’d—
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Not a muse but was ready to answer his call;
By the virtues all cherish’d, the great and the small.
There Clio I court, to reveal every mystery
Of musical lore, with its practice and history.
Mr. Bewley, now, was the principal writer for scientific articles in the Monthly Review, under the editorship of Mr. Griffith. He was, also, in close literary connexion with Dr. Priestley, Mr. Reid, and Padre Beccaria; with whom to correspond he had latterly dedicated some weeks exclusively to the study of Italian, that he might answer the letters of that celebrated man in his own language.