niece, Nadine Lobanow, married my brother William, and whose whose charming granddaughter, Princesse Irène Paskevitch, it has since been my privilege to number among my most valued St. Petersburg friends; and, to close my foreign list, that gnome-like oddity, Prince Tufiakine, of the wry neck, better known, by an inevitable Parisian corruption, as "le Prince Tout - faquin," whose carriage having one day upset a dame de la halle, to whom, in his concern, he offered to send his doctor, she answered him, "Ah bien! merci! si c'est lui qui t'a arrangé le cou comme ça, je n'en veux pas !" I had almost forgotten Princesse Louise Schönburg and her eminent brother, Prince Felix Schwarzenberg, who, among other eccentricities, was at that time deep in anatomical studies, and one evening much disgusted my aunt and other ladies present by dropping a finger-bone that had got entangled in the folds of his pockethandkerchief.

Of our countrymen residing in Paris, it is enough to mention Lord Hertford; Spencer Cowper and his beautiful wife, Lady Harriet d'Orsay; cynical old Lady Aldborough; Mrs. William Locke (mother of one of my oldest and kindest friends, Lady Walsingham); and Henry Greville, then Paid Attaché to the Embassy, whom I saw much more of in later years. At the Delmars', too, one was sure to meet most English people of distinction who came over on a visit to Paris. Lord and Lady

MUSICAL EVENINGS

5 I

Palmerston, very old friends of my aunts, who were afterwards to be my kindest friends and patrons; the Londonderrys; the Ailesburys; the Duke of Devonshire, whose former intimacy with my father made him a tried and constant friend of my father's sisters; the lovely Duchess (Constance) of Sutherland; Lord Ossulston (now Lord Tankerville); George, Lord Rivers, in whose marriage with Lord Granville's daughter my aunts took an active, cousinly interest; and others whom it would be too tedious to enumerate.

Its concerts were no doubt the chief glory of the Delmar house. Rossini, who was l'ami de la maison, sometimes helped to arrange these entertainments, which were often on a magnificent scale. Haydn's "Creation," for instance, was sung there, the Conservatoire furnishing its choruses and orchestra, led by Habeneck, and the solo parts being taken by Lablache, Tamburini, Madame Persiani, &c. Here, too, the great maestro's Stabat Mater was given almost for the first time. Rossini also lent his countenance to some amateur music in which both my aunt and sister took part, one of the numbers of his melodious Soirées Musicales being dedicated to Madame de Delmar. Some years later, I can well remember a very different voice holding us all under its spell-that of Mademoiselle Rachel, then quite a young girl and relatively unknown, whose deep, thrilling tones and impassioned delivery at once revealed her as gifted

with the rarest tragic powers.

That charming com

poser, Bellini, likewise came often to the Delmar house. Although already stricken by the malady which carried him off at so early an age, he was at that time bringing out those singularly melodious and pathetic operas which so far have somehow continued to hold their own in spite of all their flimsiness and poverty of orchestration. The "Swan of Pesaro," who was not above la jalousie de métier, was prone to speak contemptuously of them, and one day pardonably said of that noisy and vulgar motif "suoni la tromba" of the Puritani: 'Quand on le chante à Paris, je l'entends à Bologne !"

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" 1

My sister was herself no mean musician, and was at one time a favourite pupil of Chopin. Music, too, formed part of the education of us boys, and we were early taught the piano. Unfortunately I never had the patience to overcome the technical difficulties which stand in the way of all good pianoforte playing. Still music has been to me one of the great solaces and interests of life, and it is probable that what slight natural gifts I have lie in that direction. Somehow-to borrow Lord Fitzwilliam's saying about his coal-mines-I feel that in musical power and perception I have owned a bank on which I have never fully drawn.

Before leaving this subject I may mention that one of our earliest musical delights was being some

1 Rossini.

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times taken on Saturdays to the Delmar box at the Italian Opera (or the Bouffes, as it still was called), then for a season housed in the Odéon theatre. Here we heard the marvellous, and probably unrivalled, quartett, composed of Rubini, Lablache, Tamburini, and Madame Grisi-to whom I may add that accomplished singer, Madame Persiani. Nor can I forget the very unpromising début of the great artist who of all has most charmed English society, and whom I have since had the pleasure of reckoning among my friends -I mean, of course, Mario of the glorious voice and unapproachable grace of manner. Probably, however, the most curious of my musical recollections is having once heard Adolphe Nourrit and Mademoiselle Falcon in the Comte Ory. I doubt if French Opera has since known interpreters as talented as these artists, who flourished in a bygone age.

CHAPTER III

BREAK UP OF THE PARIS HOME

AMID these brilliant surroundings and refining influences it was our fate to grow up, and there is no denying that, although we may have derived from them some culture, the education and training given us were not the best calculated to fit us for the rough chances of after life. The system followed with us was, indeed, from a matter-of-fact English point of view, simply absurd, and I have had bitter cause since to lament the lack of really sound discipline that formed part of it. I hasten, at the same time, to explain that, although treated with that extreme indulgence which is too striking a feature of family life on the French patternbeing, for instance, allowed to dine late and spend the best part of the evening with our relations, instead of being packed off to bed and kept much more strictly to the schoolroom-we, of course, took but a very small part in the social doings I have endeavoured to describe. As, however, of a Sunday, which was the Delmar reception night, we were always included in the family dinnerparty at the Avenue, and were not sent home till past ten o'clock, we had excellent opportunities of

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