MENDE8 



MENDIP HILLS 



133 



absent three years. In tlie spring of 1833 he was 

 invited to conduct the Lower Rhine festival at 

 Diisseldorf, where his success led to his being 

 offered the entire direction of the music for three 

 years. He at once accepted the post and com- 

 menced his new duties in September. His work 

 at the theatre, however, proved uncongenial, and 

 was accordingly relinquished. His stay at Diissel- 

 dorf was full of responsibilities and worries, and 

 lie ultimately left the town in Octol>er 1835 to 

 conduct the Oewandhaus concerts at Leipzig. A 

 subsequent visit to Frankfort brought him in con- 

 tact with Rossini, and was also the occasion of his 

 first meeting witli Cecile Jeanrenaud, who after- 

 wards became his wife. The marriage took place 

 in 1837, and was followed by a visit to Birming- 

 ham, where he conducted his tit Paul, which had 

 been tirxt heard at Diisseldorf the previous year. 

 His attention was now chiefly devoted to Lei'p/ig, 

 but September 1840 found him again at Birming- 

 liam conducting the Lobqenaug. About this time 

 Mendelssohn was requisitioned by the king of 

 Prussia to <,<o to Berlin to assist in the foundation 

 of an Academy of Arts ; and, though loth to leave 

 a place where he was so much appreciated and 

 lieloved as in Leipzig, he removed to Berlin in 

 May is ll, on the understanding that his stay there 

 should not exceed one year. The king's idea of 

 reviving the ancient Creek tragedies led to the 

 composition by Mendelssohn of the music to the 

 Antigone and (Etlinus. 



In 1843 he had the satisfaction of seeing his 

 favourite scheme carried into effect by the opening 

 of the new music-school at Leipzig, with Schu- 

 mann and David among his associates. He was 

 in London the following year to conduct the last 

 five concerts of the Philharmonic season ; and in 

 1846 he paid bis ninth visit to Kngland for the 

 production of Elijah, which took place at Birming- 

 ham on August '-'(>. But his hard work was now 

 beginning to tell on him, for, although his Berlin 

 duties ;IMI| liis position as chief of the Leipzig Con- 

 servatorium entailed constant lal>our and anxiety, 

 lie persisted in carrying out all his engagement's. 

 He had scarcely returned from his tenth and Inst 

 visit to England, in May 1847, when the news of 

 his sister Fanny's death reached him. Periods of 

 illness and depression rapidly followed ; and on 

 November 4, 1847, he expired at his house in 

 Leipzig. The body was conveyed to Berlin, and 

 was interred in the family burial-place in the Old 

 Trinity Churchyard. 



In stature Mendelssohn was short, and his hand- 

 some. countenance was of a decidedly Jewish cast. 

 He was eminent both as pianist and organist, 

 'ially in his rendering of the works of Bach, 

 Mo/art, and Beethoven. He moreover KNMHM 

 a remarkable facility of improvisation. His gifts 

 also included a talent for landscape-drawing ; and 

 lie has left behind him a whole scries of sketches 

 illustrating his different journeys. His music 

 dwells almost exclusively on the sunny and gay 

 side of life. Itarely, if ever, dons he touch the 

 innermost depths of passion and feeling. But he was, 

 like Handel, oneof the few composers who appealed 

 to English audiences ; for forty years his Elijah 

 hag been almost as popular as the Messiah itself. 



See two collections of Mendelssohn's Letters (1861 

 nd I8G3 ; trans, by Lady Wallace, 1862-63 ), those to the 

 Moscheles (1H8H), and the selection edited by W. F. 

 Alexander and Sir George Grove (1894); the Lives by 

 Benedict (1H50), Moscheles (1873; trans, by Coleridge), 

 Umpadius ( 1886), and Reissmann (3d ed. 1892) ; Remi- 

 niscences by Devrient ( 1869 ; trans. l>y Mrs Macfarren ), 

 Hillcr (1874); and Hensel, Die Familie Mendeluohn 

 (1*7'J; trans. 1882). 



CATULLE, born at Bordeaux of Jewish 

 I>an:iitag<s 2&1 May 1841, lias since 1859 written a 



long series of poems, romances, dramas, and libretti, 

 as well as journalistic articles and criticisms on 

 Wagner, &c. Of his novels may be named Le Roi 

 Vierge ( 1880), M ephistophela ( 1890), and LaMalson 

 de la VieUle ( 1894 ). 



Mendicancy. In spite of the stringency 

 of the laws against vagrancy and begging, 

 and the numerous aid societies in every town 

 in Britain for the relief of the poor and un- 

 employed, quite an army of men, women, and 

 children wander from place to place, and pick 

 up a living from the thoughtless benevolence 

 ot their better- off and more industrious neighbours. 

 This class is largely recruited from the lazy, 

 idle, drunken, and vicious, though there is 

 always a certain percentage who are really the 

 victims of misfortune. Though the law is against 

 begging English statutes for the repression of 

 mendicancy date from the 14th century there is 

 no law against giving to beggars. But indis- 

 criminate charity only feeds the evil it seeks to 

 remove, and the weak-willed, shiftless population 

 continues to he a problem to the benevolent. The 

 truest charity consists in helping people to help 

 themselves, and those societies and individuals are 

 most useful that aid the fallen to gain work and 

 self-respect, and so rise in the social scale. There 

 are no fewer than 83 societies in Great Britain for 

 improving the condition of the poor, 42 of which are 

 in London and 11 in Scotland. The relief given 

 may consist in supplying immediate necessities, 

 helping the poor into hospitals and convalescent 

 homes, to emigrate, or to secure temporary work. 

 Tickets are in some cases supplied to subscribers, 

 which entitle the party to whom they are given to 

 one meal. Tickets for a night's shelter can also be 

 had, to l>e given instead of money. The Mendicity 

 Society in London (established for the suppression 

 of public begging in 1818), whose work lias been 

 much aided by the Charity Organisation Society 

 (see CHARITIES ), has caused some 25,000 vagrant's 

 to be convicted as impostors, and relieves some 

 13,000 or 14,000 cases in a year. A police census of 

 December 23, 1888, credited Edinburgh, in a popu- 

 lation of a little over a quarter of a million, with 

 898 common beggars and tramps ; of whom 589 

 were Scotch, 210 Irish, 83 English, and 16 foreigners. 

 In London it is calculated that one in thirty of 

 the inhabitants live on charity ; in Paris, where 

 there is a well-organised syndicate of professional 

 mendicants, one in eighteen (see Chambers's 

 Journal, 1890). Mr Booth estimated that there 

 were 3,000,000 persons in England who could not 

 live for a week on their own resources, including 

 100,000 homeless waifs, sleeping on or under 

 bridges, and hedgerows, carts, &c., and for them 

 he devised the scheme of rescue propounded in lus 

 In Darkest Enijland ( 1890). See also PooR-LAWS, 

 VAGRANTS. 



Mendicant Orders, certain religious associa- 

 tions in the Roman Church, which, carrying put the 

 principle of religious poverty and self-humiliation 

 to its fullest extent, make it a part of their profes- 

 sion to denude themselves of all property, whether 

 real or personal, and to subsist upon alms. In the 

 mendicant orders alms were commonly collected by 

 the lay-brothers ; in some, by actual solicitation ; 

 in others, by the ringing of the convent bell when 

 the stock of provisions was exhausted. See the 

 articles DOMINICANS, FRANCISCANS, CARMELITES, 

 AUGUSTINIANS ; also FKIAR. 



Mendip Hills, a range in Somersetshire, ex- 

 tending 23 miles south-eastward from Weston-super- 

 Mare to Shepton Mallet, and 3 to 6 miles in breadth. 

 The highest point is Black Down ( 1067 feet). The 

 limestone of the Mendips is pierced by numerous 

 caverns, some of which have yielded prehistoric 



