establishment over which he presides, than in the apparent quiet and tranquillity with which his office proceeds; for while the former are the most satisfactory testimonies of his judgment, genius, learning, taste, and ability, the latter are not less certain indications of order, prudence, equanimity, and firmness. Of all tasks it is the hardest to content those gifted persons whose talents are brought into competition for applause. To live in general uninterupted friendship, and to exercise the due and necessary controul which appertains to the office of a conductor, has been found difficult indeed by the managers of most public amusements. Yet the conduct of MR. GREATOREX has has been generally such as to secure to him the lasting esteem of those who have served under his standard, as well as the highest estima. tion of those distinguished personages, under whose able direction he has acted, and whose delegated authority he may be said to represent. To such testimonies growing and continued during the long period of twenty-seven years, nothing can be added.

MISS TRAVIS.

IT T formed a part of our earliest design, and it is amongst the parts of our plan, one from which we hope to derive the greatest share of self-satisfaction, "to encourage the hesitating and slow advances of modest merit." In the whole catalogue of professional singers, we know of no one whose talents, demeanour, and general character, ought so soon to invite our recollection of this principle, as the young lady whose name stands at the head of this article. They indeed conform most accurately to our preconceived notion. Nor let it be imagined, that merit is wanting, where the progress to fame and universal acquaintance with the public is slow. Where the field is so limited (for vast though it be, it is still limited) and the competition so extended, the advance must necessarily be slow, and the circumstances attending this young lady's musical education, while they have conferred great advantages in one sense, have in another been perhaps the the means of confining her range.

MISS TRAVIS is a native of Shaw, a village near Oldham, in Lancashire, which gave birth to the celebrated Miss HARROP, afterwards MRS. BATES. She is an articled apprentice to the Directors of the Antient Concert, who provide her with an Italian and a Singing master, pay all her expences, make her a handsome present at the close of the season, and permit her to form engagements entirely for her own emolument. Her only musical instructor has been MR. GREA

TOREX.

The peculiar and proper distinction of MISS TRAVIS's perform ance, is, that it is genuine English singing, of the best, if indeed we may not say, the only existing English school. She is in point of style among the females, what MR. VAUGHAN is among the men singers of the day. Her singing is pure and unadulterated-without the slightest mixture of constraint, force, or affectation. It is sweet, sensible, natural, and in sound English taste.

MISS TRAVIS'S INTONATION is so perfect, that it very rarely fails, nor do we discover that she has any fausse note. Her ear, naturally correct, has been polished by perpetually assisting in the finest accompanying orchestras of London-those of the ANTIENT and VOCAL CONCERTS-Orchestras, which have attained from uniformity of principle and continuity of practice, a precision, they who have

never heard them, would scarcely believe to fall within the reach of art. This band is in force, transition, and combination, like one instrument touched by the same master, and surely in accuracy, delicacy, in the united effects of vocal and instrumental beauty, it is unequalled. In this brief notice of this perfection we can hardly be said to digress from the subject of our memoir, for MISS TRAVIS's performance is almost identified with these concerts, she has so rarely sung in any other orchestra in the metropolis.

MISS TRAVIS indicates rather the decent and becoming rigour of feminine modesty in the picturings of her imagination as evinced in the intellectual dominion over the art, than any degree of heated, enthusiastic, or theatrical CONCEPTION. It is very customary to speak of singers as chaste. What is called chastity in singing depends entirely upon the exercise of this faculty, for it has empire alike over clocution and ornament, in short over every thing that helps to constitute expression. Her singing is in these respects plain, sensible, and that of a gentlewoman; she neither takes by storm nor by surprise, but she gradually wins upon the understanding, while the ear, though it never fills the other senses with extacy, drinks in full satisfaction. There is never any thing to condemn, however distant from brilliancy and power, and there is always to be commended a purity and sobriety, a graceful and dignified reserve, which is at all times grateful to the national estimate of character and manners. The excesses into which extraordinary genius is always betrayed will often astonish, often enrapture, and almost as often endanger its supremacy by violence or disgust, but there is a softness and sweetness, a charm truly persuasive, and one that always pleases. Of this talisman, MISS TRAVIS is the mistress.

THE TONE of MISS TRAVIS's voice is naturally full, rich, and sweet, with a slight exception perhaps against two or three of the notes just above the common point of junction between the chest and the head-voice, which are a little more thin and feeble than the rest of her scale. Her method of forming the voice has little or none of Italian art; the mouth is scarcely elongated, and upon some passages is even rounded; yet we do not hear that the tone is affected in its passage either by the throat, mouth, or nose. It is however genuine English tone, and we confess we are inclined to believe, the Italian method would have conferred a superior brilliancy as well as bestowed a more penetrating and pervading property. In all that

relates to the formation of the organ to the production of the best tone, we must yield to the Italians. The difference in the directing agents-in the mere modification slight as it seems, is we feel assured, of the utmost moment, and we think this young lady affords an ample proof. The distinction from all the attention we have been able to concentrate towards the point, lies in producing the finished tone uniformly from one spot, more from the head as it seems to us, or perhaps we may say, it receives its last modification and identity there. We never heard an Italian singer to our recollection in the slightest degree guttural, we have very rarely indeed heard an English singer, whose voice could in all its parts be said to be absolutely free from the throat. There is a thickness even in MISS TRAVIS's tone (though we do not accuse her of singing in the throat) which we are persuaded arises from the tone not coming from quite so high a site in the passage, as the Italians would have tanght her to bring it. We know these are niceties such as very few observe, and still fewer regard. But it is upon extreme attention and extreme punctiliousness, that the polish and lustre of superior perfection in art, entirely depends.

MISS TRAVIS has attained a pure, just, and polished articulation and pronunciation of the language in which she principally singsher own tongue. She is exceedingly clear and distinct, her words are audibly and intelligibly divided. Specch, though a common faculty, exists in purity more rarely than is imagined, and as we are borne out by the fact, in saying that the combination of good tone with clear speaking forms the basis of all the pleasure the million derive from vocal music, a polished enunciation is of the highest importance. MISS TRAVIS enjoys this distinction. There is, however, the higher use of imagination, conveying into the elocution of the singer all the fire, feeling, and pathos, which lead to the grandest effects of the art. In these respects, MISS TRAVIS is limited by that chastity of design, that calmness and delicacy of temperament, which we have touched

*Psellismi, or defects of pronunciation, arising from mal-formation of the organs of speech and from very various causes, produce very various effects. Some cannot pronounce an S, others labour under the same difficulty with regard to R, L, M, K, &c. some lisp, some hesitate, in some the tongue is too large, and in short the impediments are so multifarious, that there are few comparatively with the numbers of mankind, who can speak plainly, still fewer who can articulate finely. Physiologists have enumerated we know not how many species-most of which are however to be overcome by assiduous care and practical labour.

upon, when discussing the power of her CONCEPTION, and which for bids those dramatic bursts that rarely appertain to any but the singers of the Theatre. In these respects Miss TRAVIS's is the singing of the chamber, a little and a very little heightened. She may, we think, without hazarding the chance of impeachment, risk somewhat, and as confidence comes on with age, it may be naturally expected, that she will be encouraged to venture farther and to dare more. This young lady's taste has been too severely formed to allow her now to incur any danger by indulging her sensibility, and giving more play to a more powerful species of declamation and expression. She has nothing to apprehend from too much force. Into coarseness, vulgarity, extravagance, or affectation, after her established discipline, both vocal and intellectual, she can never fall.

The character of the master is a warrant for the scIENCE of the scholar. MISS TRAVIS seems so at home in the business of an orchestra, as neither to be embarrassed nor disturbed by the quantity or the nature of the accompaniment. At her age, her musical reading cannot probably have been very extensive, and it has most likely lain principally among the sound masters of the Old School. We are confirmed in this opinion by her EXECUTION, which is indicative of that period of musical learning. Her articulation of passages and divisions is sufficiently neat, but it has less of modern volubility and variety, while it has more of the antient strength and expression, in divisions more especially. The character of her cadences and ornaments, is delicate and sensible, rather than excursive or astonishing.— Her shake is particularly excellent.

We may complete our portrait by saying, that as a whole, MISS TRAVIS is a correct, sweet, and polished English singer. Simple in her manner, pure in her tone, accurate in intonation, chaste in her declamation, and with so much of science, that her auditor is never distressed by any apprehension of her failure or extravagance. As a singer of glees, she is perhaps the very best of her time, for her tone, from its richness and volume, blends and assimilates with male voices better than that of any female now before the public; and she is moreover practiced in the finest school for this department of vocal art. Her singing, whenever we have heard it, leaves us impressed with this sentiment, that although possibly we might have at some moments imagined and wished for more, there was nothing we could have wished executed otherwise.