h different
friends or pupils on their invitations, in the surrounding
counties. I think his pupil Miss Jane Stirling had something
to do with all the general arrangements. Muir Wood managed the
special arrangements of the concert, and I distinctly remember
him telling me that he never had so much difficulty in
arranging a concert as on this occasion. Chopin constantly
changed his mind. Wood had to visit him several times at the
house of Admiral Napier, at Milliken Park, near Johnstone, but
scarcely had he returned to Glasgow when he was summoned back
to alter something. The concert was given in the Merchant
Hall, Hutcheson street, now the County Buildings. The hall was
about three-quarters filled. Between Chopin's playing Madame
Adelasio de Margueritte, daughter of a well-known London
physician, sang, and Mr. Muir accompanied her. Chopin was
evidently very ill. His touch was very feeble, and while the
finish, grace, elegance and delicacy of his performances were
greatly admired by the audience, the want of power made his
playing somewhat monotonous. I do not remember the whole
programme, but he was encored for his well-known mazurka in B
flat (op. 7, No. 1), which he repeated with quite different
nuances from those of the first time. The audience was very
aristocratic, consisting mostly of ladies, among whom were the
then Duchess of Argyll and her sister, Lady Blantyre."

The other survivor is George Russell Alexander, son of the
proprietor of the Theatre Royal, Dunlop street, who in a
letter to the writer remarks especially upon Chopin's pale,
cadaverous appearance. "My emotion," he says, "was so great
that two or three times I was compelled to retire from the
room to recover myself. I have heard all the best and most
celebrated stars of the musical firmament, but never one has
left such an impress on my mind."

Chopin played October 4 in Edinburgh, and returned to London in
November after various visits. We read of a Polish ball and concert at
which he played, but the affair was not a success. He left England in
January 1849 and heartily glad he was to go. "Do you see the cattle in
this meadow?" he asked, en route for Paris: "Ca a plus d'intelligence
que des Anglais," which was not nice of him. Perhaps M. Niedzwiecki, to
whom he made the remark took as earnest a pure bit of nonsense, and
perhaps--! He certainly disliked England and the English.

Now