PREFACE.
especially to Professor Dr. Julius Schubring o. Liibeck, for their kindness in allowing me to publish the correspondence which passed between Mendels- sohn and their respective relatives. Except where it is otherwise stated, the letters are translated from the German originals.
Also to Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co., for extracts from '* Mendelssohn's Letters from 1833 to 1847 " ; to my friends, Mr. Andrew Deakin, of Birmingham, and Mr. J. S. Shedlock, for their kind assistance ; and in a special degree to Mrs. Victor Benecke (Mendelssohn's elder daughter), who has very kindly helped me to obtain permission to publish several letters relating to ** Elijah " which have hitherto been unknown. Mrs. Benecke has also allowed the portrait of her father, which forms the frontispiece to this book, to be published. It was taken in 1835, and is here reproduced for the first time.
My thanks are specially due to Miss Mounsey (formerly Miss Elizabeth Mounsey), without whose invaluable co-operation it would have been im- possible for me to write this " History" with any approach to completeness. Miss Mounsey enabled me to acquire, three years ago, the originals of fourteen letters on the subject of the English translation of " Elijah," written by Mendelssohn to her brother-in-law, the late Mr. W^illiam Bartholomew. She subsequently placed in my possession a collection of MS. copies, parts, &c., of the oratorio, which were made for the production of the work at Birmingham, in 1846. These sheets, ( vi )
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