 The Performing Mozart Family |
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
LONDON, 25 April 1764
Thank God, we have safely crossed the Maxglanerbach.[The English Channel. The allusion is to a tiny stream at Maxglan, a suburb of Salzburg.] Yet we have not done so without making a heavy contribution in vomiting. I, however, had the worst time of it. But we saved money which would have been spent on emetics; and, thank God, we are all well. Whoever has too much money should just take a journey from Paris to London; for his purse will certainly be lightened. We had the honour of spending four louis d'or in Calais,[Under Calais Nannerl noted in her diary [reproduced in Leopold Mozart's Reiseaufzeichnungen, p. 59: "I saw how the sea runs away and comes back again."] although we did not take a single meal at home, but took them with the Procureur du Roi et de l'Amirauté, with whom we also left our carriage. As soon as you arrive at Dover, it is even worse; and when you land from the boat, you find yourself surrounded by twenty to forty people who are all 'your most obedient servant' and who want to snatch your luggage from your own servants in order to carry it to the inn, after which they must be paid what they demand. I had to pay three louis d'or for the crossing, for I took a boat for my family, for which one has to pay five louis d'or. I therefore took with me four other passengers, who each paid half a louis d'or. To be landed in a small boat at Dover from the large boat each person has to pay half a federthaler. So I had to pay six small or three large laubthaler, for I had two servants with me and had taken seven post-horses as far as Calais, as one servant rode. The second servant was an Italian called Porta, who has done this journey eight times already, so that all my friends in Paris advised me to take him with me. It was a very good thing too, for he arranged everything well and did all the bargaining. In London everyone seems to me to be in fancy dress; and you cannot imagine what my wife and my little girl look like in English hats and I and our big Wolfgang in English clothes. My next letter will tell you more. We greet you.
MOZART
My address is:
A Monsieur Mozart, at the house of Mr. Cousin,
haircutter in Cecil Court,
St. Martin's Lane,
at
London[The Mozarts spent the first night at the coach-inn "The White Bear" in Picadilly (Reiseaufzeichnungen, p. 33) and then moved to their lodgings.]" [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologically arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 44-45].
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
LONDON, 28 May 1764
MONSIEUR!
You know that the farther away an object is, the smaller does it seem to the eye; and so it is with my letters. My handwriting becomes smaller according to the distance I am from Salzburg. If we were to sail over to America, my letters would probably become quite illegible. For a mere letter without a cover the cost from here to Germany is a shilling and another shilling for the cover, so that a letter with a cover costs two shillings. A guinea is 21 shillings and is equal in value to the louis d'or, for at Dover the banker Miné, who had been recommended to me in Paris, gave me 12 guineas for 12 louis d'or. French money is not accepted here. You can work out, therefore, the value of a shilling. In her letter to Paris our most gracious Frau Hagenauer suggested: 'Perhaps even to England and Holland?' When I left Salzburg I had not quite decided to come to England. But as everybody, in Paris particularly, urged us to go to London, I made up my mind to do so. And now by the help of God we are here. But we shall not go to Holland, that I can assure everyone.[Leopold Mozart, pressed to do so by the Dutch Minister in London, ... took his family to Holland in September 1765. They remained there until the end of April 1766.] We still do not know how we shall fare. We really ought to have come here in winter.
On April 27th we were with the King and Queen[George III, then twenty-seven years old, who since 1761 had been married to Charlotte Sophie von Mecklenburg-Strelitz, then twenty-one. Both were devoted to music and the Queen sang and played on the clavier tolerably well.] in the Queen's Palace[Buckingham House, built in 1703 by the Duke of Buckingham, and bought by the Crown in 1720.] in St. James's Park; so that by the fifth day after our arrival we were already at court.[Nannerl and Wolfgang performed at court on 27 April, 19 May and 25 October. See Leopold Mozart's Reiseaufzeichnungen, p. 33] The present was only twenty-four guineas, which we received immediately on leaving the King's apartment, but the graciousness with which both His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen received us cannot be described. In short, their easy manner and friendly ways made us forget that they were the King and the Queen of England. At all courts up to the present we have been received with extraordinary courtesy. But the welcome which we have been given here exceeds all others. A week later we were walking in St. James's Park. The King came along driving with the Queen and, although we all had on different clothes, they recognized us nevertheless and not only greeted us, but the King opened the window, leaned out and saluted us and especially our master Wolfgang, nodding to us and waving his hand.
. . . I intended to send off this letter a week ago. I was, however, not only prevented from doing so, but I wanted to wait for some news. But I have nothing more to tell, except that on May 19th we were again with the King and Queen from six to ten in the evening, when the only other people present were the two princes, who are the King's brothers, and another, the brother of the Queen. When we left the room we were again handed twenty-four guineas. If this happens every three or four weeks, we can put up with it! Now we are going to give on June 5th[The Public Advertizer announced a concert on 27 May, in Hickford's Room, Brewer Street, Golden Square, at which Master Mozart was to appear. This concert was postponed until 22 May, and even then Mozart, who was indisposed, did not perform.] a so-called benefit concert or concerto al nostro profitto. It is really not the time to give such concerts and little profit is to be expected from them, for the season is over and the expenses of an undertaking of this kind amount for forty guineas. But since the King's birthday is on the 4th, many of the nobility will come up to town from the country. So we must take the risk and make use of this opportunity to become known. Each person pays half a guinea and, if it were winter, I could certainly count on six hundred persons, that is, three hundred guineas. Now, however, they all go to the pleasure gardens and into the country. Basta! Everything will certainly succeed, if with God's help we keep well and if He only keeps our invincible Wolfgang in good health. The King placed before him not only works of Wagenseil,[Georg Christoph Wagenseil [1715-1777] of Vienna, organist to the Imperial court and music-master to the Empress Maria Theresia and her children.] but those of Bach[Johann Christian Bach [1735 - 1782], the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, was trained by his brother Philipp Emanuel Bach in Berlin, then went to Milan and Bologna, where he studied under Padre Martini. In 1762 he came to London, where his operas Orione and Zanaida were performed in 1763 and a third one, Adriano in Siria, in 1765.], Abel[Karl Friedrich Abel [1723-1787], probably a pupil of Sebastian Bach, entered the Dresden court orchestra in 1748. He visited London in 1759 and in 1763 was appointed chamber musician to Queen Charlotte. He was a distinguished performer on the viola da gamba and founded in 1765 with J.C. Bach, with whom he lived, the famous Bach-Abel subscription concerts, fifteen concerts a year, an undertaking which lasted until 1781.] and Handel [George III's favourite composer], and he played off everything prima vista. He played so splendidly on the King's organ that they all value his organ-playing more highly than his clavier-playing. Then he accompanied the Queen in an aria which she sang, and also a flautist[Probably Tacet, a frequent performer at the Bach-Abel concerts. . . ] who played a solo. Finally he took the bass part of some airs of Handel [which happened to be lying there] and played the most beautiful melody on it and in such a manner that everyone was amazed. In short, what he knew when he left Salzburg is a mere shadow of what he knows now. It exceeds all that one can imagine. He greets you from the clavier, where at the moment he is seated, playing through Kapellmeister Bach's trio.[WSF., vol. i. p. 104, suggests that this was one of the trios in J.C. Bach's Op. 2. . . . , published in London in 1763.] We also send you greetings. . . . He [Wolfgang] has now in his head an opera which he wants to produce with several young people. I have already had to count up all the players whom he has noted down for his orchestra, among whom Kolb and Ranftl are often mentioned" [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologically arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 45-47].
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
LONDON, 8 June 1764
MONSIEUR!
With the greatest pleasure in the world I received on June 6th your letter of May 21st, which therefore must have been wafted over by a favorable wind. I am infinitely glad that my first letter reached you safely and I trust that the second one, which I sent off on the 20th, has arrived in the meantime.
I have had another shock, that is, the shock of taking in one hundred guineas in three hours. Fortunately it is now over. I have already told you that everyone is at present out of town. June 5th was the only day on which a concert could be attempted, because the King's birthday was on the 4th, and the reason why we gave it then was in order to become known. We had a week, or rather two or three days only, in which to distribute the 'billets', for before that date there was hardly anyone in London. But, although for this kind of concert four to eight weeks are usually necessary for the distribution of the 'billets', which here they call 'tickets', to the amazement of everyone there were present more than a couple of hundred persons, including the leading people in all London; not only all the ambassadors, but the principal families in England attended it and everyone was delighted. I cannot say whether I shall have a profit of one hundred guineas, as I have not yet received the money for thirty-six tickets from Mylord March[William Douglas [1724-1810], 3rd Earl of March, succeeded his cousin as fourth Duke of Queensberry in 1778. He was a well-known man about town and a great patron of the turf and the opera. Later in life he was known as 'old Q', under which name he is constantly referred to by Horace Walpole.] and for forty tickets from a friend in town and from various others; and the expenses are surprisingly great. But the profit will certainly not be less than ninety guineas. Now listen to a few details about the expenses. The hall without lighting and music-stands costs five guineas. Each clavier, of which I have had to have two on account of the concerto for two claviers, costs half a guinea. The first violin gets three guineas and so on; and all who play the solos and concertos three, four and five guineas. The ordinary players receive each half a guinea and so forth. But, fortunately for me, all the musicians as well as the hall and everything else only cost me twenty guineas, because most of the performers would not accept anything. Well, God be praised, that is over and we have made something.
. . . my little girl, although she is only twelve years old, is one of the most skilful players in Europe, and that, in a word, my boy knows in his eighth year what one would expect only from a man of forty. Indeed only he who sees and hears him can believe it. You yourself and all our Salzburg friends have no idea of Wolfgang's progress; for he is quite different now.
I must close, for the post is going.
I am
your obedient servant
MOZART . . . " [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologically arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 47-49].
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
LONDON, 28 June 1764
MONSIEUR!
I have much pleasure in informing you that I have again deposited with the bankers Loubier et Tessier a small sum of 100 guineas, which I could arrange to be paid to someone at Salzburg who might wish to use it in this country.
At the end of next week were are going to Tunbridge[Owing to Leopold Mozart's illness this plan was not carried out.] about thirty English miles from London, a distance which can be covered by the mail coach in three or four hours, for an English mile is not more than a German quarter of an hour. There are wells there and it lies in a corner between the east and the south. In July and August many of the nobility assemble in Tunbridge, for now nobody who has means and leisure remains in London.
On Friday, June 29th, that is, on the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, there will be a concert or benefit at Ranelagh in aid of a newly established Hopital de femmes en couche,[Probably the Lying-in Hospital [Surrey], the foundation-stone of which was laid in 1765.] and whoever wishes to attend it must pay five shillings entrance. I am letting Wolfgang play a concerto on the organ at this concert[The notice of this concert in the Public Advertiser of June 26th described Mozart as 'the most extraordinary prodigy and most amazing genius that has appeared in any age.] in order to perform thereby the act of an English patriot who, as far as in him lies, endeavours to further the usefulness of this hospital which has been established pro bono publico. That is, you see, one way of winning the affection of this quite exceptional nation.
I send greetings, and so do my wife and Nannerl and little Wolfgang, who is always thinking of Salzburg.
I am
your old
MOZART" [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologially arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 49].
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
LONDON, 3 August 1764
MONSIEUR!
Do not be frightened! But prepare your heart to hear one of the saddest events. Perhaps you will have already noticed my condition from my handwriting. Almighty God has visited me with a sudden and severe illness which I contracted after a chill caught on my way home from a concert held at Mylord Thanet's[Sackville Tufton, 8th Earl of Thanet [1733-1786]. He had succeeded to the title in 1753. C.F. Pohl . . . states that the Tufton family were devoted to the arts, mentioning the fact that in 1732 six cantatas by H. Carey appeared with a dedication to the father of the eighth Earl.] and which I feel too weak to describe. Well! I have been clystered, purged and bled too on account of a severe inflammation of my throat. That is all over now and the doctors declare that I have no fever and tell me to eat. But I feel like a child. My stomach does not fancy anything and I am so frail that I can hardly think sensibly.
9 August 1764
I congratulate you on your name-day. I intended to write to you immediately after I received your welcome letter. But I was far too weak. I am now in a spot outside the town,[This letter was finished in Chelsea. Chelsea was then a village two miles from London, proverbial for its healthy situation. The Mozart family took a house belonging to a Dr. Randal in Fivefields-Row [now 183 Ebury Street], where, according to Leopold Mozart's Reiseaufzeichnungen, p. 34, they spent seven weeks. It was here that Mozart composed his first symphonies, K. 16 and 19.] where I have been carried in a sedan-chair, in order to get more appetite and fresh strength from the good air. It has one of the most beautiful views in the world. Wherever I turn my eyes, I only see gardens and in the distance the finest castles; and the house in which I am living has a lovely garden.
It depends on the grace of God whether He will preserve my life. His most holy will be done" [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologically arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 50].
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
CHELSEA NEAR LONDON, 13 September 1764
MONSIEUR,
I notice that our letters have usually taken 16 to 17 days, for up to the present I have always received one from you on the 17th, or at any rate early on the 18th day. I thank you most humbly for having carried out so accurately my request for Masses. I now state that every day, although my progress is slow, I am feeling a little better, so that I am confident that I have no internal disorder. So that you may know, however, how my illness started, I must tell you that in England there is a kind of native complaint, which is called a 'cold'. That is why you hardly ever see people wearing summer clothes. They all wear cloth garments. This so-called 'cold' in the case of people who are not constitutionally sound, becomes so dangerous that in many cases it develops into a 'consumption' as they call it here; but I call it 'febrem lentam';[i.e. a slow fever] and the wisest course for such people to adopt is to leave England and cross the sea; and many instances can be found of people recovering their health on leaving this country. I caught this 'cold' unexpectedly and in the following way. On July 8th at six in the evening we were to go to Mylord Thanet's. Before six I sent out to the stands where carriages are to be found, but not one was to be had. It was Sunday, so all had been hired. It was an exceedingly fine and very hot day. I sent for a sedan-chair, put my two children into it and walked behind, as the weather was unusually lovely. But I had forgotten how fast the bearers stride along here; and I soon had a taste of it. I can walk fairly quickly, as you know, and my stoutness does not prevent me from doing so. But, before we arrived at Mylord Thanet's I often thought that I should have to give up; for London is not like Salzburg. And I perspired as profusely as it is possible for a man to do. I had only a silk waistcoat on, though I was wearing a cloth coat, which I buttoned up immediately on arriving at Mylord Thanet's. But is was to no purpose. The evening was cool and all the windows were open. We stayed until eleven o'clock and I at once felt ill and engaged a second sedan-chair to take me home. Yet until the 14th, although I did not feel well, I went about and tried to cure myself by perspiring, which is the remedy generally adopted here. But it was no good.
My wife and children send their greetings. My wife has had a great deal to do lately on account of my illness, and, as you may imagine, she has had a great many anxieties. In Chelsea we had our food sent to us at first from an eating-house; but as it was so poor, my wife began to do our cooking and we are now in such good trim that when we return to town next week we shall continue to do our own housekeeping. Perhaps too my wife, who has become very thin, will get a little fatter.
You yourself will have probably gathered that I shall certainly spend at least the whole winter here, and that, God willing, I shall make in London my chief profit of some thousands of gulden. I am now in a city which no one at our Salzburg court has yet dared to visit and which perhaps no one will ever visit in future. Aut Caesar, aut nihil.[i.e. Either Caesar or nothing.] We have come to our long Journey's end. Once I leave England, I shall never see guineas again. So we must make the most of our opportunity. If only God in His graciousness grants us good health, we need not worry about the guineas. I am only sorry that I am obliged to spend what I might have saved. But it was God's will. Both in Salzburg and in London we are in His hands. He knows how good my intentions are. During the coming months I shall have to use every effort to win over the aristocracy and this will take a lot of galloping round and hard work. But if I achieve the object which I have set myself, I shall haul in a fine fish or rather a good catch of guineas" [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologially arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 50-52].
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
LONDON, 27 November 1764
MONSIEUR!
Do not be surprised that I am rather later in replying. I have more to do than most people would imagine, although the nobility are not in town and Parliament, contrary to usage, is not assembling until January 10th of next year[The Parliament of 1765, which passed the Stamp Act, was opened by the King on January 10th.] and therefore guineas are not yet flying about and I am still living on my purse. Yet it will soon be high time for me to fill it up again, for since the beginning of July I have spent over one hundred and seventy guineas. In addition I have the heavy expense of having six sonatas[K. 10-15. The were called six sonates pour le clavecin qui peuvent se jouer avec l'accompagnement de violon ou flaute traversiere, and the date of dedication was 18 January 1765. They were engraved at Leopold Mozart's expense. Wolfgang received from the Queen 50 guineas and the work was on sale at their lodgings from March 20th.] printed, which [at her own request] have been dedicated to the Queen of Great Britain.
. . . " [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologically arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 52-53].
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
LONDON, 3 December 1764
MONSIEUR!
You will have received my letter of November 27th. Here is the letter accompanying the sonatas.[Oeuvre I (K. 6, 7) and Oeuvre II (K. 8, 9), which had been engraved in Paris.]
Whoever wants to buy these sonatas will have to pay fort-five kreuzer for each part, that is, one gulden, thirty kreuzer for both parts or for all four sonatas [since each part consists of two sonatas]. Will you please see that a detailed notice about them is put in the Salzburg papers? In Paris the price of each part if four livres, four sous, as you will see on the title-page; a great difference from the price of forty-five kreuzer. In Frankfurt each part is being sold at one gulden, thirty kreuzer. I regret that a few mistakes have remained in the engraving, even after the corrections were made. The woman who engraved them and I were at too great a distance; and, as everything was done hurriedly, I had no time to obtain a revised proof. . . . My little Wolfgang sends greetings to you all . . .
On October 25th, the King's Coronation Day,[C.F. Pohl . . . draws attention to a slip of Leopold Mozart, inasmuch as it was the anniversary, not of the King's coronation [which took place on 22 September 1761], but of his accession to the throne in 1760.], we were with the King and Queen from six to ten.[Although the Mozarts did not leave London until the end of July 1765, this was the last time the children performed at court.]" [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologically arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 53-54].
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
LONDON, 8 February 1765
MONSIEUR!
On the evening of the 15th we are giving a concert, which will probably bring me in about one hundred and fifty guineas. Whether I shall still make anything after that and, if so, what, I do not know. By postponing the summoning of Parliament [which usually assembles two months earlier] the King has dealt upon the whole a severe blow at all arts and sciences. To explain this would take too long.
This winter, nobody is making much money . . .
I am writing this letter [to be followed by another very soon] solely in order not to miss the opportunity of sending a few sonatas[Mozart's Oeuvre I and Oeuvre II (K. 6-9]] to Augsburg and Nuremberg. So I beg you to send thirty copies of each part, that is, sixty copies in all, to Herr Johann Jacob Lotter,[a music publisher in Augsburg] and the same number to Herr Haffner, lute-player in Nuremberg. You will note that each part has been sold at the price of one gulden, thirty kreuzer, but, as they are a bit of a rarity, I shall let them go to the natives of Salzburg half price. Please have this inserted in our local newspapers, adding that the little composer wants to let his fellow townsmen have each part for forty-five kreuzer, or both parts for one gulden, thirty kreuzer, in order to encourage the young people of Salzburg to study music with zest.
We send our greetings to all. Oh, what a lot of things I have to do. The symphonies at the concert will all be by Wolfgang Mozart.[The concert was postponed to February 18th and again to February 21st, when it was held in the Little Theatre, Haymarktet, at 6 P.M. 'in order to allow the nobility to attend other assemblies'. The notice added that 'all the ouvertures [i.e. symphonies] are by this amazing composer, who is only eight years old.' Mozart was then nine. The symphonies which were performed had been composed in Chelsea. . . .] I must copy them myself, unless I want to pay one shilling for each sheet. Copying music is a very profitable business here. . . . Addio" [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologic ally arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 54-55].
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
LONDON, 19 March 1765
MONSIEUR!
I am certain that my last short letter reached you before the end of Salzburg's Lent market and that therefore it arrived in time.
My concert, which I intended to give on February 15th, did not take place until the 21st, and on account of the number of entertainments [which really weary one here] was not so well attended as I had hoped. Nevertheless, I took in about one hundred and thirty guineas. As, however, the expenses connected with it amounted to over twenty-seven guineas, I have not made much more than one hundred guineas.[The next and last concert was held on 13 May 1765. On March 11th the Public Advertiser had a notice that the 'prodigies of nature' were giving in six weeks a last concert before their departure from England and that every day from 12 to 3, visitors could come to Mr. Mozart's lodgings in Thrift Street, hear the prodigies perform in private, test them and buy concert tickets, now reduced to five shillings each. Leopold Mozart took the opportunity of selling copies of Mozart's sonatas and engravings of the Carmontelle painting.]
I know, however, what the reason is, and why we are not being treated more generously, although since our arrival in London we have made a few hundred guineas. I did not accept a proposal which was made to me. But what is the use of saying much about a matter upon which I have decided deliberately after mature consideration and several sleepless nights and which is now done with, as I will not bring up my children in such a dangerous place (where the majority of the inhabitants have no religion and where one only has evil examples before one). You would be amazed if you saw the way children are brought up here; not to mention other matters connected with religion.
I must ask you to reply to this letter as soon as possible, for, as it is quite likely that I shall leave London at the beginning of May, I must have an answer by the end of April.
The Queen has given our Wolfgang a present of fifty guineas for the dedication of the sonatas.
Please ask our dear friend Spitzeder to forgive me for not yet replying to his very welcome letters. He will surely realize how much a man has to do, who is keeping his whole family in a town where, even with the strictest economy, it costs him 300 pound sterling a year to do so, and where, in addition, he ought to be saving a little. Has Herr Adlgasser not yet returned to Salzburg? We send him our greetings. Why, of course we know Mr. Bach. I must close, for the post is going" [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologically arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 55-56].
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
LONDON, 18 April 1765
MONSIEUR!
I was delighted to receive your letter. You have made most excellent arrangement. At the moment I have very little news to send you.
As for my departure, I have no more definite news; and any sensible person must realize that it is not any easy matter to decide. It will take us all our time to get away from here. The very sight of the luggage we have to pack makes me perspire. Just think! We have been in England for a whole year. Why, we have practically made our home here, so that to take our departure from England requires even more preparation than when we left Salzburg" [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologically arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 56].
"Leopold Mozart to Lorenz Hagenauer, Salzburg
[Extract]
LONDON, 9 July 1765
MONSIEUR!
No doubt you will all be thinking that we have long ago swum over the sea. But it has been impossible to get away. We are now in London and once we leave we cannot return to England in three days. So I simply cannot hurry.
I beg you when you receive this letter to arrange immediately for six Masses to be said, two at the Holy Child at Loreto, two in the parish and two at Maria-Plain. These are to prepare our way over the sea.[Leopold Mozart was proposing to leave England. The last notice in the Public Advertiser, July 11th, stated that the children would play every day from 12 to 3 in the 'Swan and Hoop' tavern, Cornhill, admittance 25. 6d., and that they would play together on one clavier with the keyboard covered.]
I thought when I left Paris that I had requested my friend M. Grimm to send a number of the portrait engravings to you at Salzburg. As I heard nothing more about this, I enquired recently from him and he replied that I had never said anything about it. I have therefore asked him to send you a large supply, so that if a parcel arrives you will know what it is. Please present a copy to our most gracious lord.[The Archbishop.] These copper engravings were done immediately after our arrival in Paris, when my boy was seven and my little girl eleven. Grimm was responsible for this. In Paris each engraving is sold for twenty-four sous" [LETTERS OF MOZART AND HIS FAMILY. Chronologically arranged, translated and edited by Emily Anderson. New York: 1966: St Martin's Press, p. 57].
[Background Image: St. Paul's Cathedral, London.]