Midland Institute--a very great honour before a highly critical
audience--Alcester, Pershore, Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Evesham, Broadway,
Badsey, Wallingford, and a great many villages in the Evesham
district. At Moreton she sang for the local Choral Society, taking the
soprano solos in the first part of Haydn's _Spring_, and the local
paper reported that her "birdlike voice added much to the beauty of
the cantata." In the second part of the concert she gave _The Bird
that came in Spring_, by Sterndale Bennett. I was always a little
nervous during this song in anticipation of the upper C towards the
finale, but it never failed to come true and brilliant. As we were
leaving by train the following morning we met a dear old musician who
had taken part in the chorus of the cantata. He begged to be
introduced to her, and said in his hearty congratulations on her
performance, that never before had such a note been heard in Moreton.

At one of the Broadway concerts my wife had the pleasure of meeting
Miss Maude Valerie White, who was playing the accompaniments for
performers of her own compositions, including _The Devout Lover_,
which, she told Miss White, she considered one of the best songs in
the English language, at the same time asking for her autograph. Miss
White was kind enough to write her signature with the MS. music of the
first phrase--notes and words--of the song in a book which my wife
kept for the autographs of distinguished musicians and celebrated
people.

While at Malvern my wife once heard Jenny Lind in public, and she
describes it as a most memorable occasion.

Jenny Lind had for some years retired from public performance, but
consented to reappear at the request of a deputation of railway
employees anxious to arrange a concert in aid of the widows and
orphans of officials killed in a recent railway accident. She
stipulated that she should sing in two duets only, choosing the other
voice herself, and she selected Miss Hilda Wilson, the well-known
contralto of that time.

They sang two duets by Rubinstein, one being _The Song of the Summer
Birds_, full of elaborate execution. Her voice was so true, sweet and
flexible, trilling and warbling like a bird, and taking the A flat as
a climax of delight at the conclusion with the greatest ease, that
with closed eyes it might have been taken for the effort of a young
girl.

Jenny Lind was over seventy at the time; she was erect, tall, and
graceful; she wore a b