One result of all the work thus accomplished was that when, late in 1790, Prince Anton Esterhazy dismissed his entire corps of musicians, Haydn’s reputation was so widespread that he was immediately solicited by one Salomon, a violinist and conductor, to make a trip to London. Hard as it must have been for him, at his age of nearly sixty, to exchange his studious habits for the fatigues and excitement of travel, the opportunity was too good to be lost; and late in 1790 he set out with Salomon, reaching London early in the next year. In reading of this visit to England, as well as of the second one which Haydn made three years later, one hardly knows whether to be more impressed by the fame and prosperity which came to him from all sides, or by the homely simplicity with which he received them. This quiet, precise, pious old kapellmeister was the object of the most flattering attentions from everyone in London; he was half worshipped by the ladies, he was fêted by noble families, he was the guest of the Prince of Wales. His works were awaited with impatience and received with enthusiasm; he was honored with the Degree of Doctor of Music by Oxford University; his pockets were filled with enough English gold to buy him German soup for the rest of his life. Yet he was almost as much overwhelmed as delighted with all this unwonted excitement. With a characteristic mixture of homeliness and piety he wrote to his friend Frau von Genzinger: “Oh! how often do I long to be beside you at the piano, even for a quarter of an hour, and then to have some good German soup. But we cannot have everything in this world. May God only vouchsafe to grant me the health that I have hitherto enjoyed, and may I preserve it by good conduct and out of gratitude to the Almighty!” His English note-book reveals the same childlike attitude, mingled with an interest in details and statistics curiously characteristic of his matter-of-fact mind. Here are a few typical entries: “The national debt of England is estimated to be over two hundred millions. Once it was calculated that if it were desired to pay the debt in silver, the wagons that would bring it, close together, would reach from London to York (two hundred miles), each wagon carrying £6,000.” “The city of London consumes annually 800,000 cartloads of coal. Each cart holds thirteen bags, each bag two Metzen. Most of the coal comes from Newcastle. Often 200 vessels laden with coal arrive at the same time. A cartload costs 2-1/2 pounds.” “Beginning of May, 1792, Lord Barrymore gave a ball that cost 5,000 guineas. He paid 1,000 guineas for 1,000 peaches; 2,000 baskets of gooseberries cost 5 shillings apiece.”