ed a school of music at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, in England. She was also the first woman ever to
address the Literary and Philosophical Society, when in 1880 she
delivered an address on the history of the violin. There is little
doubt, however, that the success of Teresa Milanollo gave the first
great impulse toward the study of the violin by women.

Lady Halle was born at Bruenn, March 21, 1840. Her father was Josef
Neruda, a musician of good ability, and he gave her the first
instruction on the violin, and then placed her under Leopold Jansa, in
Vienna. Wilhelmina Maria Franziska Neruda made her first appearance in
public in 1846, at which time she was not quite seven years old. On this
occasion her sister Amalie, who was a pianist, accompanied her, and
shortly afterwards her father took her, with her sister Amalie and one
of her brothers, on an extended tour. The family consisted of two
sons--a pianist and a 'cellist--and two daughters--a violinist and a
pianist.

In 1849 they reached London, where the young violinist played a concerto
by De Beriot, at the seventh Philharmonic concert of that season. By the
critics at that time she was said to be wonderful in bravura music, in
musical intelligence, and in her remarkable accuracy.

As time went on, and her playing matured, she became known throughout
Europe. In 1864 she married Ludwig Norman, conductor of the opera at
Stockholm, and for a time she remained in that city and became a teacher
at the Royal Music School.

Before long she was again busy with concert playing, and in 1869 she
again appeared in England, where she became a great favourite, and has
appeared there regularly almost, if not quite, every season since. Hans
von Buelow spoke of her as Joachim's rival, and called her "the violin
fairy."

Joachim has always been a great favourite in England, but Madame
Norman-Neruda, or Lady Halle, as she became later, has fully shared his
popularity. What Joachim is to the sterner sex, just the same is Lady
Halle to the gentler.

Joachim was indeed one of the first to recognise the fact that he had in
Mlle. Neruda a rival, for in the days when she was earning her
reputation he heard her at some place on the Continent, and remarked to
Charles Halle, who afterwards became her husband, "I recommend this
artist to your careful consideration. Mark this, when people have given
her a fair hearing, they will think more of her and less of me."

Ludwig Norman died in 1885, a