each pay 1 florin 30
kreuzers [about 2s. 8d.] a day, exclusive of wine and beer." This was
bad enough.

An Enthusiastic Welcome

But London made up for it all by the flattering way in which it received
the visitor. People of the highest rank called on him; ambassadors left
cards; the leading musical societies vied with each other in their zeal
to do him honour. Even the poetasters began to twang their lyres in his
praise. Thus Burney, who had been for some time in correspondence with
him, saluted him with an effusion, of which it will suffice to quote the
following lines:

Welcome, great master! to our favoured isle, Already partial to thy name
and style; Long may thy fountain of invention run In streams as rapid
as it first begun; While skill for each fantastic whim provides, And
certain science ev'ry current guides! Oh, may thy days, from human
suff'rings, free, Be blest with glory and felicity, With full fruition,
to a distant hour, Of all thy magic and creative pow'r! Blest in
thyself, with rectitude of mind, And blessing, with thy talents, all
mankind!

Like "the man Sterne" after the publication of Tristram Shandy, he was
soon deep in social engagements for weeks ahead. "I could dine out every
day," he informs his friends in Germany. Shortly after his arrival he
was conducted by the Academy of Ancient Music into a "very handsome
room" adjoining the Freemasons' Hall, and placed at a table where covers
were laid for 200. "It was proposed that I should take a seat near the
top, but as it so happened that I had dined out that very day, and
ate more than usual, I declined the honour, excusing myself under the
pretext of not being very well; but in spite of this, I could not
get off drinking the health, in Burgundy, of the harmonious gentlemen
present. All responded to it, but at last allowed me to go home."
This sort of thing strangely contrasted with the quiet, drowsy life
of Esterhaz; and although Haydn evidently felt flattered by so much
attention, he often expressed a wish that he might escape in order to
have more peace for work.

Ideas of London

His ideas about London were mixed and hesitating. He was chiefly
impressed by the size of the city, a fact which the Londoner of to-day
can only fully appreciate when he remembers that in Haydn's time
Regent Street had not been built and Lisson Grove was a country lane.
Mendelssohn described the metropolis as "that smoky nest which is fated
to be now and ever my