LINLEY, THOMAS, a composer who ranks high in the English school of music, was born at Wells, about the year 1725. He was first the pupil of Chilcot, organist of the abbey, Bath, and finished his studies under Paradies, an eminent Venetian, who had become a resi dent in this country. Mr. Linley established himself in Bath, where he was much sought after as a teacher, and carried on the concerts in that place, then the resort of all the fashionable world during a part of every year. To the attraction of these, his two daughters, Eliza and Mary, afterwards Mrs. Sheridan and Mra. Tickell, by their admirable singing, contributed very largely.
On the retirement of Christopher Smith, who had been Ilandel'e amanuensis, and succeeded him in the management of the London oratorios, Mr. Linley, by the advice of his son-in-law Mr. Sheridan, united with Mr. Stanley, the blind composer, in continuing those per formances; and on the death of Stanley, Dr. Arnold joined Linley in the same, an undertaking by no mean. unprofitable in Re results. In 1775 he set the music to Sheridan's opera 'The Duenna,' which had a run unparalleled in dramatic annals; it was performed seventy five times during that season. This led to his entering into a treaty to purchase Mr. Gerrick's moiety of Drury-lane theatre; and in 1776 be, conjointly with Mr. Sheridan, bought two-sevenths of it, for which they paid 20,000/., Dr. Ford taking the other three-fourteenths, and the chief management was entrusted to Sheridan, while to Liuley was assigned the direction of the musical department. Ho now devoted his time to the theatre, and, among other pieces, produced his ' Carnival of Venice;' &lima and Azor,' from the French; and ' The Camp,' Sheridan's second production. He also added those charming acoom paniments to the airs in ' The Beggars Opera,' which are still in use. His Six Elegies, written in the early part of his life, contributed in no small degree to his immediate fame and future fortune; they were sung by all who could sing, and will continue to be admired by those who have taste enough to appreciate what is at once original, simple, and beautiful His Twelve Ballads are lovely melodies, but have fallen into temporary neglect like many other excellent English compositions. His madrigal 'Let me careless and unthoughtful
lying' (one of Cowley's Fragments), is a work which certainly has no superior, if any equal, of the sort.
Mr. Sheridan's political and social engagements having occupied a large portion of the timo which, in prudence, ought to have been devoted to the theatre, the management of its details fell much on Mr. Linley; and herein he derived great assistance from his wife, a lady of strong wind and active habits, by whose care the pecuniary affairs of that vast concern were well regulated, so long as she had any control over them.
Mr. Linley survived his two accomplished daughters and several of his other children. But some years previous to their decease he suffered a shock by the loss of his eldest son Thomas Liuley, who was drowned by the upsetting of a boat while on a visit to the Duke of Ancaster, in Lincolnshire, from which and his subsequent bereave ments his mind never entirely recovered. This young man, who had just reached his twenty-second year, possessed genius of a superior order. His musical education was- as perfect as his father's and Dr. Boyce's instructions and those of the best masters of Italy and Germany could reader it, and be had given decided proofs of its efficiency when the fatal accident occurred. None out of his own family more lamented the event than his friend the celebrated Mozart, with whom he had lived on the Continent in the closest intimacy, and who always continued to mention him in terms of affection aud admi ration. Mr. Linley died in 1795, leaving a widow, a daughter, and two eons, of whom