month and to rest after my great doings in
London. I gave two matinees, which it appears have given
pleasure, but which, for all that, did not the less bore me.
Without them, however, I do not know how I could have passed
three months in this dear London, with large apartments
(absolutely necessary), carriage, and valet. My health is not
altogether bad, but I become more feeble, and the air here
does not yet agree with me. Miss Stirling was going to write
to you from London, and asks me to beg you to excuse her. The
fact is that these ladies had many preparations to make before
their journey to Scotland, where they intend to remain some
months. There is in Edinburgh a pupil of yours, Mr. Drechsler,
I believe.

[FOOTNOTE: Louis Drechsler (son of the Dessau violoncellist
Carl Drechsler and uncle of the Edinburgh violoncellist and
conductor Carl Drechsler Hamilton), who came to Edinburgh in
August, 1841, and died there on June 25,1860. From an obituary
notice in a local paper I gather that he studied under
Franchomme in 1845.]

He came to see me in London; he appeared to me a fine young
fellow, and he loves you much. He plays duets [fait de la
musique] with a great lady of this country, Lady Murray, one
of my sexagenarian pupils in London, to whom I have also
promised a visit in her beautiful mansion. [FOOTNOTE: The wife
of Lord (Sir John Archibald) Murray, I think. At any rate,
this lady was very musical and in the habit of playing with
Louis Drechsler.] But I do not know how I shall do it, for I
have promised to be in Manchester on the 28th of August to
play at a concert for 60 pounds. Neukomm is there, and,
provided that he does not improvise on the same day [et pourvu
qu'il ne m'improvise pas le meme jour], I reckon on earning my
60 francs [he means, of course, "60 pounds"].

[FOOTNOTE: Thinking that this remark had some hidden meaning,
I applied to Franchomme for an explanation; but he wrote to me
as follows: "Chopin trouvait que Neukomm etait un musicien
ennuyeux, et il lui etait desagreable de penser que Neukomm
pourrait improviser dans le concert dans lequel il devrait
jouer."]

After that I don't know what will become of me. I should like
very much if they were to give me a pension for life for
having composed nothing, not even an air a la Osborne or
Sowinski (both of them excellent friends), the one an
Irishman, the othe