Thomas Augustine, doctor of music, was born in 1710, in King Street, Covent Garden, where his father was an upholsterer. He served three years with an attorney; but his strong propensity for music prevailed over the law, and he finally devoted himself to that science, in which he soon became so eminent as to receive the degree of doctor from the University of Oxford in 1759. He was an extensive composer, and adapted upwards of thirty musical pieces for the stage. They are characterized by a natural ease and elegance, a flow of melody, and a fulness and variety without affected or extraneous modulation. His most celebrated works are Artaxerxes, paraphrased from Metastasio; the Masque of Comus; the Opera of Operas, a burletta; the Guardian Outwitted; and the Rose; some of which have taken a permanent hold of the stage. Dr Arne died March 5, 1778.