Autograph Letter Signed ('Henry R Bishop') from Sir Henry Rowley Bishop, musical director at Vauxhall Gardens, to his employer there Frederick Gye the elder, regarding 'Mr Barton' and the planned opening 'in some style' of 'The Barber of Seville'.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with slight creasing to bottom outer corner of both leaves. Bishop begins by asking Gye to confirm 'the excuse which Mr Barton has given for his absence the whole of Friday Evening last: & which having being [sic] noticed to me officially, I am obliged to enquire particularly into: - He says that he was at the Old Bailey Trial in consequence of your invitation that day! - Pray say "Yes" or "No" to this, & all will be right.' He had hoped to see Gye in Fleet St that morning (Gye's London Wine Company was at 144 Fleet St), but the rehearsal of the "Barber of Seville" takes up the whole of the morning. It is to be played tomorrow night, in some style, - & will be worth your hearing, I think'. He is enclosing 'some orders - also the £10'. He also has to 'implore a grant' of £20 from Gye, and will 'contrive to return it, be assured, very shortly'. Rowley was music director at Vauxhall Gardens from 1830 to 1833. His adaptation of 'The Barber of Seville', first performed at Covent Garden in 1818, was for some time more popular than Rossini's original.