LONDON (1848-1895) CHAPTER XIII. ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. (1848-1854.) At the close of June 1848 Manuel Garcia, at the age of forty-three, arrived in London, where he was to make a new home and spend the rest of his days. What changes had taken place in the capital since he had last been there in the autumn of 1825! When he left George IV. was still king; when he returned William IV. had reigned and been succeeded by Queen Victoria, who had already been on the throne over ten years, while our present king, as Prince of Wales, was six years old. Let us glance for a moment at the position of musical affairs in London, and at some of the artists who were in favour when Garcia arrived. In the previous year (in which both Mendelssohn and Donizetti had died) an important event had taken place, for the Covent Garden Theatre was opened as an opera house, and a new period in its history begun. The scheme had been originated by Signor Persiani, who took the lease of the place in partnership with Galletti; then, finding that they had embarked on an enterprise which was too much for them to carry through without assistance, they brought in Messrs Cramer, the music publishers, to help finance the undertaking. As to the company which took part in the opening season, Signor Costa left Her Majesty's Theatre in order to fill the responsible post of conductor of an orchestra which had M. Prosper Sainton as principal violin; and of the artists themselves the stars were Grisi, Mario, Tamburini, and the Persianis, while Mdlle. Alboni made a triumphant _début_, and proved herself another strong card to strengthen the hand of the new management. With the launching of this enterprise a triangular duel was fought between Covent Garden, Drury Lane under Bunn, and Her Majesty's under Lumley, who, after the famous "Bunn Controversy," had been successful in securing a trump-card with Garcia's now world-famous pupil, Jenny Lind. Next let us conjure up the artistic circles of London, among which Señor Garcia found himself in 1848. What names of the past we find when we glance in turn at science and literature, the stage and music. In one and all it was an age of giants. The scientific world could boast such lights as Brewster, Darwin, Faraday, Sir John Herschel, Huxley, Miller, Owen, and Tyndall. Literature poured forth a veritable Niagara of Prose writers: Charlotte Brontë, Carlyle, Dickens, Disraeli, Grote, G. P. R. James, Douglas Jerrold, Charles Kingsley, Charles Lever, Bulwer Lytton, Macaulay, Martineau, John Stuart Mill, Ruskin, and Thackeray; while Poetry was scarcely less prominent with Arnold, P. Bayley, the Brownings, Clough, Tom Hood, Horner, Alexander Smith, Sir H. Taylor, and Tennyson. _En passant_, we may note the following pieces of literary news, culled from newspapers published during the month in which Manuel Garcia landed in England. The Nestor of literary France died in Paris on Tuesday last, Monsieur de Chateaubriand.