death, on September 28, 1790, of Prince Nicolaus. The event was of great
importance to his future. Had the prince lived, Haydn would doubtless
have continued in his service, for he "absolutely adored him." But
Prince Anton, who now succeeded, dismissed the whole Capelle, retaining
only the few members necessary for the carrying on of the church
service, and Haydn's occupation was practically gone. The new prince
nominally held the right to his services, but there was no reason for
his remaining longer at the castle, and he accordingly took up his
residence in Vienna. Thus free to employ his time as he considered best,
Haydn embraced the opportunity to carry out a long-meditated project,
and paid the first of his two visits to London. With these we enter upon
a new epoch in the composer's life, and one of great interest to the
student and lover of music.

CHAPTER V. FIRST LONDON VISIT--1791-1792

English Music about 1791--Salomon--Mozart and Haydn--Terms for
London--Bonn and Beethoven--Haydn Sea-Sick--Arrives in London--An
Enthusiastic Welcome--Ideas of the Metropolis--At Court--Unreasoning
Rivalries--Temporarily eclipsed--Band and Baton--A Rehearsal
Incident--Hanover Square Rooms--Hoops and Swords--The "Surprise"
Symphony--Gallic Excitement--New Compositions--Benefit and Other
Concerts--Haydn on Handel--Oxford Doctor of Music--The
"Oxford" Symphony--Relaxations--Royalty again--Pleyel--Close of
Season--Herschel--Haydn at St Paul's--London Acquaintances--Another
Romance--Mistress Schroeter--Love-Letters--Haydn's Note-Book.

English Music about 1791

Haydn came to England in 1791. It may occur to the reader to ask what
England was doing in music at that time, and who were the foremost
representatives of the art. The first question may be partially answered
from the literature of the period. Thus Jackson, in his Present State of
Music in London, published the year after Haydn's arrival, remarks
that "instrumental music has been of late carried to such perfection
in London by the consummate skill of the performers that any attempt to
beat the time would be justly considered as entirely needless." Burney,
again, in his last volume, published in 1789, says that the great
improvement in taste during the previous twenty years was "as different
as civilized people from savages"; while Stafford Smith, writing in
1779, tells that music was then "thought to be in greater perfection
than among even the Italians themselves." T