in consistence with this
declaration of the Lord Keeper's proficiency on the violin is a later
passage of the biography, where Roger says that his brother "attempted
the violin, being ambitious of the prime part in concert, but soon found
that he began such a difficult art too late." It is, however, certain
that the eminent lawyer in the busiest passages of his laborious life
found time for musical practice, and that besides his essay on music, he
contributed to his favorite art several compositions which were
performed in private concert-rooms.

Sharing in the musical tastes of his family, Roger North, the
biographer, was the _friend_ who used to touch the harpsichord that
stood at the door of the Lord Keeper's bedchamber; and when political
changes had extinguished his hopes of preferment, he found consolation
in music and literature. Retiring to his seat in Norfolk, Roger fitted
up a concert-room with instruments that roused the astonishment of
country squires, and an organ that was extolled by critical professors
for the sweetness of its tones. In that seclusion, where he lived to
extreme old age, the lettered lawyer composed the greater part of those
writings which have rendered him familiar to the present generation. Of
his 'Memoirs of Musick,' readers are not accustomed to speak so
gratefully as of his biographies; but the curious sketch which Dr.
Rimbault edited and for the first time published in 1846, is worthy of
perusal, and will maintain a place on the shelves of literary collectors
by the side of his brother's 'Essay.'

In that treatise Roger alludes to a contest which in the reigns of
Charles II. and James II. agitated the musicians of London, divided the
Templars into two hostile parties, and for a considerable time gave rise
to quarrels in every quarter of the town. All this disturbance resulted
from "a competition for an organ in the Temple church, for which the two
competitors, the best artists in Europe, Smith and Harris, were but just
not ruined." The struggle thus mentioned in the 'Memoirs of Musick' is
so comic an episode in the story of London life, and has been the
occasion of so much error amongst writers, that it claims brief
restatement in the present chapter.

In February, 1682, the Benchers of the Temples, wishing to obtain for
their church an organ of superlative excellence, invited Father Smith
and Renatus Harris to compete for the honor of supplying the instrument.
The masters of the