'The strokes of his hammer on the anvil kept time to his song', (1907). The German composer Handel is inspired by the sound of a hammer on an anvil: 'he was overtaken by a heavy shower of rain, and sought shelter within the smithy. The blacksmith was singing at his work, and the strokes of his hammer on the anvil kept time to his song. Handel, it is said, was so struck both by the air and its accompaniment that on reaching home he wrote down the tune with a set of variations upon it.' An episode from the life of German composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). From "Story-Lives of Great Musicians", by F.J. Rowbotham. [Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. Ltd, London, 1907]