e distinguished strangers to New York.
Mrs. Jameson's visit to the United States, in the year 1835, gave me the
opportunity of making acquaintance with that very accomplished lady and
author. I was then a girl of sixteen summers, but I had read the "Diary
of an Ennuyee," which first brought Mrs. Jameson into literary
prominence. I read afterwards with avidity the two later volumes in
which she gives so good an account of modern art work in Europe. In
these she speaks with enthusiasm of certain frescoes in Munich which I
was sorry, many years later, to be obliged to consider less beautiful
than her description of them would have warranted one in believing. When
I perused these works, having myself no practical knowledge of art,
their graphic style seemed to give me clear vision of the things
described. The beautiful Pinakothek and Glyptothek of Munich became to
me as if I actually saw them, and when it was my good fortune to visit
them I seemed, especially in the case of the marbles, to meet with old
friends. Mrs. Jameson's connoisseurship was not limited to pictorial and
sculptural art. Of music also she was passionately fond. In the book
just spoken of she describes an evening passed with the composer Wieck
in his German home. In this she speaks of his daughter Clara, and of her
lover, young Schumann. Clara Wieck, afterwards Madame Schumann, became
well known in Europe as a pianist of eminence, and of Schumann as a
composer it needs not now to speak. There were various legends regarding
Mrs. Jameson's private history. It was said that her husband, marrying
her against his will, parted from her at the church door, and thereafter
left England for Canada, where he was residing at the time of her visit.
I first met her at an evening party at the house of a friend. I was
invited to make some music, and sang, among other things, a brilliant
bravura air from "Semiramide." When I would have left the piano, Mrs.
Jameson came to me and said, "_Altra cosa_, my dear." My voice had been
cultivated with care, and though not of great power was considered
pleasing in quality, and was certainly very flexible. I met Mrs. Jameson
at several other entertainments devised in her honor. She was of middle
height, her hair red blond in color. Her face was not handsome, but
sensitive and sympathetic in expression. The elegant dames of New York
were somewhat scandalized at her want of taste in dress. I actually
heard one of them say, "How like the