and the
real worth of her music, have won the admiration of all music lovers.

Florence Gilbert, a sister of the well-known dramatist, has won some
renown as a ballad composer. She studied harmony and composition with
Stainer and Prout, and after this excellent training spent much time in
creative work. For a long time she let her songs remain in manuscript,
out of diffidence as to their value. Finally Mme. Helen Trust, the
singer, came upon them, and obtained permission to bring out the
"Message to Phyllis." Its success was pronounced, and the composer was
easily persuaded to issue her other works.

One of the older group of song composers is Clara Angela Macironi, whose
work has been known many years. Born in 1821, she studied in the
Academy, and became one of its professors. Her suite for violin and
piano is well written, but she is known to the general public chiefly by
her part-songs. Some of these have been sung by three thousand voices
at the Crystal Palace. She has published many songs for solo voice also,
but these are hardly equal in musical worth to the productions of the
more recent geniuses.

Less high in standard, but vastly popular, are the songs of Hope Temple,
of whose works "My Lady's Bower" and "In Sweet September" are probably
familiar in many households. Edith Cooke has found a vein of dainty
playfulness in "Two Marionettes" and other similar songs. The
productions of Kate Lucy Ward are graceful and musicianly, while
Katharine Ramsay has written some admirable children's songs. Without
enumerating more, it may be worth mentioning that the famous Patti has
tried her hand at composing songs, and that Lady Tennyson has set some
of her husband's lyrics, although he is said to have been tone-deaf and
unable to appreciate any music.

The Irish songs of Alicia Adelaide Needham are said to be exceptionally
good, and thoroughly new and local in flavour. Ireland is also
represented among women composers by Christina Morison, who produced a
three-act opera, "The Uhlans," and wrote many songs; Lady Helen Selina
Dufferin, whose songs are widely known, especially the "Lay of the Irish
Emigrant;" and Lady Morgan, born in the eighteenth century at Dublin,
and known through her operetta, "The First Attempt."

Scotland can show no great woman composer. There are a few ballad
writers besides those already mentioned, but they are of little
importance. Wales can boast one musical daughter in Llewela Davies, who
w