Travelling widely throughout Europe and befriending musicians from Handel to Haydn, it is hard to believe that Charles Burney began his career as an indentured servant musician. With his intellect and extensive networking, Burney embarked on cultural pilgrimages, leaving a legacy of strongly opinionated letters, three books and four volumes of the History of Music. These reveal some of the most extraordinary aspects of daily and cultural life during the baroque period. Burney’s historical accounts, replete with gossip and withering observations, enrich our appreciation of the compositions and provide us with a rich source of cultural history.