"I would have much preferred staying at home with a book," he writes. "I had made my first appearance at the Crystal Palace in the afternoon, and felt depressed with the poor impression I had made. The party, which had been arranged to give Miss Kemble an opportunity of singing before a small assembly previously to confronting the larger audience at St Martin's Hall, included the famous Adelaide Kemble, Virginia Gabriel, John Hullah, Mr and Mrs Henry Leslie, and others.
"I felt great sympathy for the poor trembling girl who was about to undergo an ordeal for which she was not physically prepared. I learned afterwards her voice had been much strained by an incompetent professor during her long residence in Hanover. Manuel Garcia had done wonders with it since her return to England, but she still had great difficulty in controlling the upper register, which naturally added considerably to her nervousness. Nevertheless she sang exceedingly well and with great intelligence.
"This party," he concludes, "which I would willingly have shirked, proved a very important event for me,—in less than eighteen months Miss Kemble became my wife."
The year 1859 was memorable for the fine work of Garcia's two pupils—Pauline Viardot and Battaille. The former revived Orphée, and achieved so great a success in the part that it stood out afterwards as one of her most famous rôles. The latter brought out a book on singing which reflected the greatest credit not only on himself but on the maestro from whom he had received inspiration and knowledge.
The next year, which saw the capture of Pekin in far-off China, brought with it a strange coincidence. As we have seen, some improvements in the laryngoscope had followed its invention, due to the labours of Türck and the experimental skill and acumen of Czermak, and in due course questions of priority became a bone of contention, as they had done nearly two decades previously in connection with Señor Garcia's 'Mémoire sur la Voix humaine.'
For the annual prize awarded in 1860 by the Paris Academy of Sciences, under the Montyon foundation, Türck and Czermak submitted contributions on the art of laryngoscopy. But nice points of priority were brushed aside by the Academy, and to each there was awarded a "mention honorable," accompanied by a gift of money.
This action seems to have prompted Garcia to put forward a claim for the prize in Experimental Physiology to be awarded for the year 1861. Accordingly he presented a memoir, in which he recapitulated his pioneer work, and expressed the hope that the favours meted out to the before-mentioned authors might be extended to himself. The matter does not, however, appear to have gone any further.
In this year another of his famous pupils, Mathilde Marchesi, brought out a book on singing, 'L'École du Chant,' founded on her master's teaching, and with it achieved notable success.
With 1862 there came the first tardy recognition which Manuel Garcia received from the medical world for the inestimable boon which he had conferred on them by his invention: the diploma of Doctor of Medicine, honoris causa, was bestowed on him by the University of Königsberg. But as the year brought in its train this pleasure, so, too, it had its compensating sorrow, for on the 10th of May, at Saint-Josse-ten-Noode in Belgium, his mother passed away at the ripe old age of eighty-four.
1868, in which Disraeli assumed the helm of State as Prime Minister, saw the advent of Antoinette Sterling, who came on to Garcia from Cologne, where she had been studying under Mathilde Marchesi.