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New Zealand Mail, Issue 868, 19 October 1888, Page 2

The following interesting notes relative to the late Mr George Worgan, .of this city—from the pen of Mr Robert Parker—appear in the last number of The Musical Times : “Mr George Worgan was grandson of the celebrated Dr Worgan (whose portrait, I believe, still hangs in the Hall at Christ Church, Oxford), and son of a Gloucestershire rector. He wasborn in 1802, and had, therefore, reached the ripe age of eightysix. Hi 3 memory was unclouded and his enthusiasm for music undimmed to the day of his death, and I have known no greater pleasure than listening to his rich store of musical reminiscences, some of which I will br efly mention. When quite a young lad he was one day taken to see Mrs Charles Wesley, widow of the famous preacher, and during his visit was introduced to her two sons, Charles and Samuel, who were already elderly men. A few years later he deputised at the organ (at Portman Chapel, Mayfai ) for the famous Samuel Wesley, whom he succeeded as organist. Many times has Mr Worgan spoken with enthusiasm of * old Wesley’s’ fugue playing, which is now famous as a matter of history. At the pianoforte Mr Worgan’s master was famouß John Cramer,tand he. had as fellow-pupil the celebrated John Field, whose awkward appearance and exquisite playing my old friend described most graphically. Field went to Russia, and Worgan settled in London as a fashionable pianoforte teacher, his social and professional position being greatly helped by his aunt, Ladv Parsons (wife of the Chief Magistrate at Bow-street), who had been a great favourite at the Court of George 111. He taught in the f milies of many of the leading nobility, and was at one time nearly having the honour of teaching the Princess Victoria, our present Queen. Among his pupils were the daughters of tha great dementi, whom he bas often described to me, and with whom, as indeed with all the wellknown names from 1820 to 1850, he was on terms of intimacy. As a member of the Philharmonic Soo ety, Mr Worgan attended the seasons conducted by Mosobeles, Spohr, Smart, Msndelssohn, &e.y and I have see i him almost wild with excitement when describing the first performance by Mendelssohn of his G minor Concerto, and its electrical effect on the audience. But (to go back still earlier) he would at another time tell of Weber and f Oberon,’ and how he went nigh" after night to Convent Garden to hear the fairy opera and see its great composer, who was even then in the clutches of death ; while his reminiscences of Paganini, and Jenny Lind, and Brahain, and all the famous players and singers and literary men and women of half a century ago were simply legion. Mr Worgan retired with a competence about 1850, and soon afterward came to New Zealand, wh re he bought a sheep-run. Fortune was unkind to him in this rough and strange land, and after many vicissitudes and heavy losses he took up his old vocation as a mnsio-teacher, in which he laboured until a few years bacK.” Messrs Baker Bros, repott the following sales by private treaty Cambridge-terrace, five-roomed house and shed, situated on part of town acre 225, with a frontage of 60ft x 92ft, bought for £850; Owen-street, town acre 900, purchased by Mr Hope for £2lO ; Cuba-street, 58ft x 160 ft, with adjoining piece of land at the baok, 37ft x 117 ft lin, approached by a 12ft- right-of-way. from Dixon-street, together with the buildings erected thereon, by Mr A. Farmer, and lately occupied by Mr James Smith of Te Aro House, sold on behalf of Messrs Turnbull, Smith and Co. for £6500 ; two house properties off Tjnakori-road, sold for £IOOO and £425 respectively ; Banks-terrace, fourroomed cottage, ground 30ft x 120 ft, sold on behalf of Mr O. H. Pinel to Airs Adelaj.de for £320 ; Brooklyn, section 96, sold to Mr Wm. McLeod for £36 10a ; total, £9541 10s. It will be interesting, as showing the success which has attended the Brooklyn sales, to state that the sale of-the above section, No. 96, brings the total up to the present to 100 sections, containing in all 31a 3r 22p, sold for £4565 9s 9d, since 23rd May last.