some time together in Germany! We should see and hear much more of one
another, in peace and quietness, than we could in the rush of a London
season, crowded as you are there with work, and I with leisure. You
would meet Klingemann too; we are daily expecting him; he must have been
in Hanover for some time already. Once more, to wind up, Come!
Now that our wanderings are concluded, we doubly feel what a happy
summer we have spent, what English comfort we have enjoyed, what
happiness and what never-to-be-forgotten kindness we have experienced.
It was delightful indeed! And then, on our return home, we could not
help saying that in the whole five months in which we wandered over land
and sea, by steam or on muleback, across roads and rocks, we could not
remember one unpleasant moment, not one dull day, but that we had been
enabled to enjoy everything in undisturbed delight and health. Then I
felt as though we never could be thankful enough, and ought never to
pray for anything but a continuance of such happiness. From first to
last we have felt deeply grateful for the mercies showered upon us, the
remembrance of which will never leave us as long as we live. In
Switzerland--oh, well, of that I could talk for whole evenings, till you
were thoroughly tired of my long stories, as dull and dry as the
incidents they would describe were lively and bright. Then came a
delightful fortnight with the Souchays at Frankfurt, then Leipzig and
the first Subscription Concert. They flattered themselves you would have
come to it, dear Moscheles; for David told me they had specially invited
you. Hauptmann’s first Mass was performed at St. Thomas’s Church; then
we had three new violin Quartets by Schumann, the first of which most
particularly delighted me. Madame Schumann played Weber’s Concertstück,
and some Thalberg, as beautifully and with as much fire as ever. Here I
found all well,--that is, music excepted, which, Heaven knows, is
anything but well. They are performing “William Tell” for the wedding
festivities, curtailed into three acts, and they call it “the composer’s
arrangement for the Parisian stage,” and are racking their brains to
discover whether Rossini had any call to write operas or not. The
_Weissbier_, the cabs, cakes, and officials are wonderful here, but not
much besides.
I have requested an audience of the King, with a view to obtaining his
most gracious permission to depart; but what with the wedding, his
journey, etc., I have not yet been received. Should I be more successful
next week, I hope to be in my well-known Leipzig home in another
fortnight; but it must be with a really good grace that he allows me to
retire, for I love him too well, and owe him too much, to let it be
otherwise.
Oh, how my pen has run away with me! I dare not touch the next page,
which Cécile wants. So let me add, on this one, love to the children,
and my wishes for your welfare, but, above all, the wish for an early
and happy meeting.