BBC History Magazine recognizes struggling trumpeters

[Bachatit]

Here's an excerpt from this month's BBC History Magazine:

"In May 1728, the 36 year old trumpet player John Grano discovered his luck had finally run out. Grano's debts had been piling up for weeks. Business had not been good of late but his spending on fine clothes and finer wines had not slowed. By Thursday 30th his creditors had finally had enough of Grano's empty promises and applied to the court for his arrest. He was seized by a bailiff in the street and instructed to pay up or face the consequences of his spending. Grano was not panicked-this was hardly the first time he had faced his creditors' threats. However, this time there was no deal to be done no new extension to be found and, as he wrote in his diary that night, no "brother, relation, or friend came nigh me" to bail him out. Unable to pay, Grano was taken to "this Hell between 7&8 at night"-the Marshalsea debtors' prison."

At amusing footnote:

"Grano spent much of his time in the prison's coffeehouse, playing backgammon and flirting with female prisoners"