LOVE OF MUSIC 153 
So far as science went, the lengthening chain of months 
enlarged his powers and strengthened his professional position. 
Without counting the inevitable separation from friends, the 
chief thing he found lacking on the voyage was music, though 
he could not profess to be a musician any more than an artist. 
He tells his sister Elizabeth (May 12, 1843) : 
On board this ship I want music more than anything, 
and am always ready to break my leave for the sake of 
hearing it. I often wish I understood it, and perhaps 
oftener still (am glad ?) that I do not ; since, as matters 
now are, I cannot perceive those faults that would grate 
upon the ear of a musician. 
He does not care for * modern ballad music ' but likes the 
older English and Scotch airs, e.g. ' Where the bee sucks,' — 
good sacred music, such as Handel, ' Israel in Egypt,* and 
Haydn's ' Creation' ; and some operatic music of which he 
is kept in mind by the naval and military bands, and is 
delighted that the girls and his mother are practising his 
favourite songs and glees against his return. 
Thus it may be imagined what a double disappointment 
awaited him at Eio on the homeward voyage. 
To his Sisters 
Rio de Janeiro : June 20, 1843. 
The Americans have an immense fifty-gun ship as Com- 
modore ship stationed quite close to us, and would you believe 
it ? the Goths have no band on board but some huge drums 
and squeaking fifes, which they make a terrible din upon 
every night, and beat off with Yankee Doodle at 8 p.m. 
Not only is the noise horrible, but at that time a tolerable 
band plays on board the Brazilian flagship, whose music 
is consequently drowned before it reaches us. 
A letter of November 28, 1842, to his old friend, Mrs. Boott, 
gives the fullest account of his artistic tastes and education. 
I often regret that I never saw any pictures that can be 
called good. A rehsh for this branch of the Fine Arts has 
not yet extended to the Colonies, whose children cannot 
