THE remainder of the year '49 has left me nothing to tell.

　　For me, it was the inane life of that draff of Society - theyoung man-about-town: the tailor's, the haberdasher's, thebootmaker's, and trinket-maker's, young man; the dancing and'hell'-frequenting young man; the young man of the 'CiderCellars' and Piccadilly saloons; the valiant dove-slayer, thepark-lounger, the young lady's young man - who puts his hatinto mourning, and turns up his trousers because - becausethe other young man does ditto, ditto.

　　I had a share in the Guards' omnibus box at Covent Garden,with the privilege attached of going behind the scenes. Ah!

　　that was a real pleasure. To listen night after night toGrisi and Mario, Alboni and Lablache, Viardot and Ronconi,Persiani and Tamburini, - and Jenny Lind too, though she wasat the other house. And what an orchestra was Costa's - withSainton leader, and Lindley and old Dragonetti, who togetherbut alone, accompanied the RECITATIVE with their harmoniouschords on 'cello and double-bass. Is singing a lost art? Oris that but a TEMPORIS ACTI question? We who heard those nowsilent voices fancy there are none to match them nowadays.

　　Certainly there are no dancers like Taglioni, and Cerito, andFanny Elsler, and Carlotta Grisi.

　　After the opera and the ball, one finished the night atVauxhall or Ranelagh; then as gay, and exactly the same, asthey were when Miss Becky Sharpe and fat Jos supped thereonly five-and-thirty years before.

　　Except at the Opera, and the Philharmonic, and Exeter Hall,one rarely heard good music. Monsieur Jullien, that princeof musical mountebanks - the 'Prince of Waterloo,' as JohnElla called him, was the first to popularise classical musicat his promenade concerts, by tentatively introducing asingle movement of a symphony here and there in the programmeof his quadrilles and waltzes and music-hall songs.

　　Mr. Ella, too, furthered the movement with his Musical Unionand quartett parties at Willis's Rooms, where Sainton andCooper led alternately, and the incomparable Piatti and Hillmade up the four. Here Ernst, Sivori, Vieuxtemps, andBottesini, and Mesdames Schumann, Dulcken, Arabella Goddard,and all the famous virtuosi played their solos.

　　Great was the stimulus thus given by Ella's energy andenthusiasm. As a proof of what he had to contend with, andwhat he triumphed over, Halle's 'Life' may be quoted, whereit says: 'When Mr. Ella asked me [this was in 1848] what Iwished to play, and heard that it was one of Beethoven'spianoforte sonatas, he exclaimed "Impossible!" andendeavoured to demonstrate that they were not works to beplayed in public.' What seven-league boots the world hasstridden in within the memory of living men!

　　John Ella himself led the second violins in Costa's band, andhad begun life (so I have been told) as a pastry-cook. Iknew both him and the wonderful little Frenchman 'at home.'

　　According to both, in their different ways, Beethoven andMozart would have been lost to fame but for their heroicefforts to save them.

　　I used occasionally to play with Ella at the house of a ladywho gave musical parties. He was always attuned to thehighest pitch, - most good-natured, but mos............