Susanna Wesley

SURVIVORS AND DESCENDANTS. 233
first showed his talent when nearly three years old, by
picking out a tune correctly on the harpsichord, and,
what was more, putting a true bass to it. At four
years of age his father took the little fellow to London,
where the first musicians of the day pointed out that
he ought to be brought up to follow his natural bent
as a profession. His father and uncle do not appear
to have made the slightest objection, and it was probably
very pleasing to them when they found that the
boy turned instinctively to cathedral music. Dr. Boyce
was long his principal master, and after him Mr.
Kelway, who introduced his pupil and protege to the
notice of King George III.
Under his father's tuition he received the rudiments
of a classical education, grew up to have very gentle
and even courtier-like manners, and for his simplicity
and kindness of heart was a universal favourite ;
but
so little calculated was he to take care of himself in
this naughty world, that his sister devoted herself to
him, and acted as a sort of guardian angel, though a
very unobtrusive one.
The first time Charles received the royal command
to attend at Buckingham House was in 1775, when
he was just eighteen ;
and he was carried across the
Park in a sedan-chair, after having been, it is said,
carefully dressed by
his mother and sister. From
that time forth he was annually summoned to Windsor ;
and when Princess Charlotte was old enough to require
a music master, he was selected for the post. He
ultimately became organist at Marylebone Church,
and was well known in musical circles. One who
"
knew him well, said, In music he was an angel ;
in
everything else a child." He scarcely knew a day's illhealth,
and died in 1834 at the age of seventy-seven.