m Bonn the journey was resumed by way of Brussels to
Calais, which was reached in a violent storm and an incessant downpour
of rain. "I am very well, thank God!" writes the composer to Frau
Genzinger, "although somewhat thinner, owing to fatigue, irregular
sleep, and eating and drinking so many different things."

Haydn Sea-Sick

Next morning, after attending early mass, he embarked at 7:30, and
landed at Dover at five o'clock in the afternoon. It was his first
acquaintance with the sea, and, as the weather was rather rough, he
makes no little of it in letters written from London. "I remained on
deck during the whole passage," he says, "in order to gaze my full
at that huge monster--the ocean. So long as there was a calm I had no
fears, but when at length a violent wind began to blow, rising every
minute, and I saw the boisterous high waves running on, I was seized
with a little alarm and a little indisposition likewise." Thus
delicately does he allude to a painful episode.

Arrives in London

Haydn reached London in the opening days of 1791. He passed his first
night at the house of Bland, the music-publisher, at 45 High Holborn,
which now, rebuilt, forms part of the First Avenue Hotel. Bland, it
should have been mentioned before, had been sent over to Vienna by
Salomon to coax Haydn into an engagement in 1787. When he was admitted
on that occasion to Haydn's room, he found the composer in the act of
shaving, complaining the while of the bluntness of his razor. "I would
give my best quartet for a good razor," he exclaimed testily. The hint
was enough for Bland, who immediately hurried off to his lodgings and
fetched a more serviceable tool. Haydn was as good as his word:
he presented Bland with his latest quartet, and the work is still
familiarly known as the "Rasirmesser" (razor) Quartet. The incident
was, no doubt, recalled when Haydn renewed his acquaintance with the
music-publisher.

But Haydn did not remain the guest of Bland. Next day he went to live
with Salomon, at 18 Great Pulteney Street, Golden Square, which--also
rebuilt--is now the warehouse of Messrs Chatto & Windus, the publishers.
[See Musical Haunts in London, by F.G. Edwards, London, 1895] He
described it in one of his letters as "a neat, comfortable lodging,"
and extolled the cooking of his Italian landlord, "who gives us four
excellent dishes." But his frugal mind was staggered at the charges.
"Everything is terribly dear here," he wrote. "We