270 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xix, 



too. There never was such ardent and unbounded affection 

 as in her ; it seemed as if her religious feelings had given her 

 a power of loving unknown to less pious characters. The 

 last ten months have carried away with them a treasure of 

 affection, of tenderness, and of religious example to us. I 

 trust the prayers of these two dear sisters 1 for us may be 

 heard, and that we may join them in a very few years. 



Several letters of my mother to Fanny Hensleigh Wedg- 

 wood, written in 1836 and 1837, have been preserved. 

 They remind me of her later letters ; they are written in the 

 same casual, careless style, often giving a picture of the 

 family life in a few words with a happy touch, but are inter- 

 mixed with little details which would now be of no interest. 



Emma went to the Manchester Festival this year and 

 heard Malibran, who made an undying impression on her. 

 She often spoke of her charm as quite unequalled, and 

 especially of her possessing the full beauty of a soprano and 

 contralto voice. She also went to the Festival at Worcester, 

 staying with her cousin Charlotte Isaac (nee Holland), at 

 Hen wick. There she heard Clara Novello. 



Emma Wedgwood to her sister-in-law Mrs Hensleigh 



Wedgwood. 



Clara has such a simple dawdling little voice and way of 

 speaking, one feels quite surprised that such sounds can 

 come out of her. 2 There is something quite tragical in poor 

 Malibran's death [23 Sept., 1836] especially after having 

 seen her singing away so few days before. Mrs Novello, 

 who is an acquaintance of Charlotte's, told her that as soon 

 as ever Malibran was dead, de Beriot (her husband) set off 

 to Brussels without even leaving a servant with the body. 3 

 It is hardly possible that he should not have cared for her. 

 I have been wishing to have you for a companion at these 

 concerts so much. . . . 



1 Caroline, Mrs Drewe, had died in 1835. 



2 Clara Novello was then a girl of eighteen, but she was already 

 famous, having been singing in public for two or three years. 



3 " Two hours after her death he was in his carriage on his way to 

 Brussels to secure her property." Grove, Diet, of Music. 



