and the following letter, written during the stay with his brother at Dresden, which he had announced his intention of making, shows the interest he continued to take in it: TO CONCERT-MASTER SPAETH.27 "MY DEAR CONCERT-MASTER,-You will have "received through Privy Councillor Florschütz "the last parcel of my contributions to the "Singing Society got together by me at Gotha. "I send you to-day Beethoven's much "wished-for and highly admired Praise of Music. As parts of it only could be got "here, I had to write to Leipzig for it, which "accounts for your only now receiving it. You "will find the instrumental music written out "in parts, as well as that for the vocal per formers, which, by a lucky mistake of the 'shopkeeper, is in duplicate. The whole comes more expensive than I at first ex'pected. It will amount to a sum of about "sixty florins, showing that we shall not be "able to make any important acquisitions out "of our funds. "You may now hand over this cantata to 27 For original of letter, see Appendix C. p. 420. "the library of the Singing Society. I would only ask you to send me back the music for "the pianoforte (den Klavierauszug) after the "concert has taken place. "I offer myself for the basso-solo in the "cantata, which, though not important, seems "to be very interesting. It will, perhaps, give you some trouble to find two good sopranos. "For the part of the violin obligato, which is extremely beautiful, Eichhorn will suit very "well. "Now, good-by, my dear Concert-master. Send me some account to Carlsbad of the re"hearsals of Handel and Nencini. After leaving Dresden, the much dreaded visit to Carlsbad was paid, and he writes thence to Baron Stockmar on the 9th August, complaining of having been asked to go to Reinhardsbrunn immediately after returning to Coburg, which, as an interruption to his proposed course of study, he disliked as much as the visit to Carlsbad. His going to Reinhardsbrunn, however, was not insisted upon, for, on the 6th September he writes to the Baron from the Rosenau to announce his arrival there, "having "at last carried my point, in order to enjoy "some days of quiet and regular occupation." The stay at the Rosenau was, however, short, for early in October he had again to leave it, to pay that eventful visit to England which will be the subject of the next chapter. CHAPTER X. 1839. VISIT TO ENGLAND-THE MARRIAGE OF THE QUEEN AND PRINCE SETTLED. THE time was now approaching when the marriage, to the possibility of which the grandmother of the Queen and Prince, the Dowager Duchess of Coburg, had so fondly looked forward when they were both children, and which, for the last year, had been the object of such anxious wishes and such sanguine expectations, was to be finally settled. From a very early period the hope expressed by the Dowager Duchess of Coburg had assumed the form of a definite idea, that might some day be realised; and the Prince used to relate that "when he was a child of "three years old, his nurse always told him "that he should marry the Queen, and that "when he first thought of marrying at all, he "always thought of her.' As the children grew up this idea was warmly encouraged by the King of the Belgians, from whom, indeed, the Queen first heard of it. He had always taken the most affectionate and parental interest in her welfare and happiness, and she herself ever looked up to him with the love and respect of a daughter. Baron Stockmar also had early formed the highest opinion of the young Prince, and his letters to the King of the Belgians, written in the spring of 1836, express his strong conviction that no Prince whom he knew, was so well qualified to make the Queen happy, or fitly to sustain the arduous and difficult position of Prince Consort in England.* How this early promise of distinction was "fulfilled," the Queen says in the memorandum from which this account is taken, "how im"measurably all the most sanguine expecta"tions were surpassed-how the King's fondest hopes were realised ten thousandfold — and "how the fearful blow which took him from us 66 1 The Queen's Journal, June 23rd, 1840. |