which descants in epigrammatic fashion on the comparative morals of the
women of France, Holland and England is unfit for publication. Looking
over the diary, it is instructive to observe how little reference
is made to music. One or two of the entries are plainly memoranda of
purchases to be made for friends. There is one note about the National
Debt of England, another about the trial of Warren Hastings. London, we
learn, has 4000 carts for cleaning the streets, and consumes annually
800,000 cartloads of coals. That scandalous book, the Memoirs of Mrs
Billington, which had just been published, forms the subject of a long
entry. "It is said that her [Mrs Billington's] character is very faulty,
but nevertheless she is a great genius, and all the women hate her
because she is so beautiful."

Prince of Wale's Punch

A note is made of the constituents of the Prince of Wales's punch--"One
bottle champagne, one bottle Burgundy, one bottle rum, ten lemons, two
oranges, pound and a half of sugar." A process for preserving milk "for
a long time" is also described. We read that on the 5th of November
(1791) "there was a fog so thick that one might have spread it on bread.
In order to write I had to light a candle as early as eleven o'clock."
Here is a curious item--"In the month of June 1792 a chicken, 7s.; an
Indian [a kind of bittern found in North America] 9s.; a dozen larks, 1
coron [? crown]. N.B.--If plucked, a duck, 5s."

Haydn liked a good story, and when he heard one made a note of it. The
diary contains two such stories. One is headed "Anectod," and runs: "At
a grand concert, as the director was about to begin the first number,
the kettledrummer called loudly to him, asking him to wait a moment,
because his two drums were not in tune. The leader could not and would
not wait any longer, and told the drummer to transpose for the present."
The second story is equally good. "An Archbishop of London, having asked
Parliament to silence a preacher of the Moravian religion who preached
in public, the Vice-President answered that could easily be done: only
make him a Bishop, and he would keep silent all his life."

On the whole the note-book cannot be described as of strong biographical
interest, but a reading of its contents as translated by Mr Krehbiel
will certainly help towards an appreciation of the personal character of
the composer.

CHAPTER VI. SECOND LONDON VISIT--1794-1795

Beethoven--Takes Lessons from Hay