GRACIOUS MAJ E STY , PE RMISSION D I D RE SPE CTFULLY ED CATED. T THE EE O QU N. MADAM , The great nation which has the happiness of living in the freedom of the law under your ’ Maj esty s glorious sceptre shows its continuous m ental relationship to the people of Germany, r who owe thei origin to the same race , in nothing perhaps more plainly than in the ardour with which for upwards of a century it has appro priated the creations of our great composers . Just as Shakespeare has become to the Germans a national poet, so to the English is Handel a national composer. The immortal works of d with Mozart, Beethoven, Hay n, and Weber met enthusiastic reception and lasting admiration in dn . England, as did Hay and Weber themselves But it was genuine affection which the people of Britain bestowed upon our great and youthful a x . m ster, Feli Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hardly more than a boy when he began his artistic all a . career in London, he soon won he rts Everyone watched with fond and eager interest the steady progress of the youth and the man his El ah whose greatest work, ij , the ripest of f to fruit his genius, was irst presented the world at an English festival . He well deserves the honour bestowed upon him of a place amongst the chosen spirits whose portraits adorn the monument which Your Majesty, as a wife and as a Queen, has erected to a Prince who occupies so prominent a position amongst the ul noblest promoters of human c ture . The rare distinction bestowed upon this little book, of being allowed to bear the victorious t name of Your Majes y, is due above all to the memory of the gloriou s master to whom it . is consecrated My thanks are doubly heartfelt. May a reflection of the gracious reception which my noble friend enjoyed from Your Majesty be followm as granted to the g pages, consecrated they are to memory, and also partly ema nating from h u have honour to s bscribe myself, Madam, ’ Majesty s humble devoted servant, E R FERDINAND HILL . E PREFAC . PHOTOGRAPHY often gives us the most different of likenesses the same man, each one recognizable, but none exhaustive ; and it is only the painter r — provided he be a real a tist who , out of the i man fold reflections photographed on his brain , can produce a portrait in which everyone may hims read what he elf saw in the original, and e re which everyone will acknowledge to be a. r p i s entation of wh le m an the o . In the same way the traits which different people seize in giving their personal recollections of a famous man w ll - e i always be somewhat one sided, in spit u of the most truthf l intention, and it is only — the one—wh b biographer and he the right o, y t putting every hing together, all that he has seen and heard, or even guessed, can bring to light in all the individuality of the man, its com leteness and f p ulness of meaning. Even in s letters and conversations, where everyone depict f is hi - himsel , there a certain photograp c one sided s are nl e ne s, because they intended o y for a singl di a r in vidu l ; and most people, however t ue they d f may be to themselves, always mo i y their mental a to physiognomy to a cert in extent, according the diflerent individualities with which they come ur into contact. I have endeavo ed in these pages to give a picture of Mendelssohn as he is reflected f in my remembrance they may there ore, perhaps, supply material to his future biographer, giving as they do a new aspect of that richly- gifted or of man, at any rate, a more complete picture one side of him than has hitherto been supplied to us in the valuable writings and letters already is in his publ hed, namely, relations to a true a t -fr and mr if be hearted rtis iend co ade, I may allowed thus to style myself. The peculiarity r a e at of his relations to me, even at the ea ly g which his genius had ripened and he became celebrated, was, that they were those not only I ! of ff . friendly a ection, but of real fellowship very much regret that I was not in the habit 'o f putting down my experiences, during the years in which, from time to time, I enjoyed n s such intimate intercourse with him . Ma y preciou “ details have escaped me, though I still have a perfectly clear picture of my friend before me . However, all that I have told may be received with the most implicit confidence . Music cannot be described ; language is totally incapable of giving even the m ost distant idea And of a musical composition. in the same i t u way, very l ttle can be told of the ac al com m unications which go to make up the intimate intercourse of two musicians . The hours which I spent with Mendelssohn at the piano, in the interchange of our views on music and c inds own ompositions of all k , our and other ’ people s, were , in a certain sense, the best which I had the happiness of enjoying with him ; but it would be impossible for me to give more than e the most general account of th m. If, on the o ther hand, I have tried to preserve many of my ’ d r ar or ear f iend s rem ks, that are perhaps trivial, fi insigni cant traits of speech or action, I have done so with the conviction that the merest t is n rifle interesti g, when a great man is con ’ m r c erned . Mendelssohn s ad i ers have reproached me for not coming forward long ago with my c i ommunications . Various reasons w thheld me , and all one above others, namely, that I might not give occasion to the very slightest accusation o f trying to gain popularity through his friend of s hip . Proud it as I was and am, it was too s . acred to me to be made use of Now however, I come forward all the more boldly with these u l r pages, so f l of admi able traits of the departed, be because , one of the brightest and most firm am ent beautiful stars in the of German art, own is experiencing, in his country, the attacks of of i , envy , of want comprehens on and judgment which can only bring dishonour on those from o ll d whom they pr ceed, for they wi never succee in detracting from the glory which surrounds his . n ame . Gold cannot be tarnished hi m Thus, with fond devotion, I add t s si ple garland to the adorns the open brow of the youthful master, and will adorn it so lon as reason and feelm clear s h to ne s and depth, freedom and beauty are eld o e c nditions of the highest creations of art. FERDIN AND COLOGNE , 1873 . E I ’ E FACE D TOR S PR . MY part in this work has been confin ed to the pleasant task of passing an excellent translation di through the press, and ad ng a few notes of date or place to the text since its appearance in il ’ Macm lan s Magazine . The volume has had the advantage of Dr. ill ’ i mi H er s rev sion, and for this and his per ssion of the to make use of the portrait, the best thanks publishers and myself are due to him . As a lover of music and of Mendelssohn however, I owe him a much deeper debt, which dl I gladly acknowledge . This book is undoubte y the most important contribution to the biography of Mendelssohn that has appeared since the pub lication of the two volumes of his Letters . One his more volume of letters to family, or one more l dr - ike the present, but ad essed to a non musician — his a Schubring or a Hildebrandt and, whether f Li e be ever written or not, the world would be in tolerably full possession of one of the — most remarkable, interesting, and many sided characters of the century . As I write the news arrives of the death Of ’ s Paul Mendel sohn, Felix s younger brother, and the last remaining member of the family circle to e which he was so fondly attached . It is a doubl — reminder first that but for over - work and over excitement Felix Mendelssohn himself might have been still with us, or but recently departed ; and dl secon y that those who knew him personally, and to whom he was not only a musician but a living, n fts lovi g friend, rich beyond measure in the gi s f and power of li e, are fast passing away with their recollections and traditions out of the reach of the biographer. R VE G G O . SYDE HAM N , 4 J u ne 25th, 187 . CHAPTE R II . P S— E E MBE 1 3 1 T P L 1 2 ARI D C R, 8 , 9 A RI , 83 — A I! -LA - H PE LL E A ND SSE LD O F MA Y 1 4 TO M CH 1 C A DU R , 83 , AR , 83 CHAPTE R IV .