on.

Amid all this labor his public playing had to be given up, but
composition went steadily on. During the eight years of the Columbia
professorship, some of the most important works of his life were
produced; among them were, Sea Pieces the two later Sonatas, the Norse
and the Keltic, Fireside Tales, and New England Idyls. The Woodland
Sketches had already been published and some of his finest songs.
Indeed nearly one quarter of all his compositions were the fruit of
those eight years while he held the post at Columbia.

In 1896 he bought some property near Peterboro, New Hampshire--fifteen
acres with a small farmhouse and other buildings, and fifty acres of
forest. The buildings were remodeled into a rambling but comfortable
dwelling, and here, amid woods and hills he loved, he spent the summer
of each year. He built a little log cabin in the woods near by, and
here he wrote some of his best music.

In 1904 MacDowell left Columbia, but continued his private piano
classes, and sometimes admitted free such students as were unable
to pay. After his arduous labors at Columbia, which had been a great
drain on his vitality, he should have had a complete rest and change.
Had he done so, the collapse which was imminent might have been
averted. But he took no rest though in the spring of 1905 he began to
show signs of nervous breakdown. The following summer was spent, as
usual, in Peterboro but it seemed to bring no relief to the exhausted
composer. In the fall of that year his ailment appeared worse.
Although he seemed perfectly well in body, his mind gradually became
like that of a child. The writer was privileged to see him on one
occasion, and retains an ineffaceable memory of the composer in his
white flannels, seated in a large easy chair, taking little notice
of what was passing about him, seldom recognizing his friends or
visitors, but giving the hand of his devoted wife a devoted squeeze
when she moved to his side to speak to him.

This state continued for over two years, until his final release,
January 23, 1908, as he had just entered his forty-seventh year. The
old Westminster Hotel had been the MacDowell home through the long
illness. From here is but a step to St. George's Episcopal Church,
where a simple service was held. On the following day the composer was
taken to Peterboro, his summer home, a spot destined to play its part,
due to the untiring efforts of Mrs. MacDowell, in the development of
music in