“Our dear Mendelssohn—I cannot call him otherwise—arrived at four o’clock, was with us at seven, just the same warm and genial friend as of old; bright, cordial, and hearty,—in a word, the type of a true man. Klingemann and Chorley joined him here at dinner; and in the evening Felix junior had such a tremendous romp with his godfather, that the whole house shook. One can scarcely realize that the man who was presently improvising in his grandest style, was the same as the Felix senior, the king of games and romps.”
On the 20th of September Mendelssohn and Moscheles went to Birmingham. From there the latter writes:—
21. Birmingham. From a Pen Drawing by Mendelssohn. ([See page 209].)
“Whilst all Birmingham was congratulating itself on having the heaven-born composer within its walls, and on the privilege of hearing him conduct his latest work, he, in the midst of a thousand duties, found leisure to make for the children a pen-and-ink sketch of the city, with its town hall, its houses, smoky chimneys, and all.”[43]
Further on Moscheles describes the performance of Mendelssohn’s “Hymn of Praise,” and ends with the words:—