The directors of the Philharmonic Society had decided upon feting Ernst on his arrival and arranged a party at Richmond in his honour, which took the shape of an early dinner...Ernst had to respond to many civilities, to empty his glass at the separate request of each of the ' convives,' so often that at last I saw that he was overcome, and feared that he might roll under the table. It was at that critical moment that somebody proposed Ernst should play something. The proposal was cheered vociferously, and as Ernst's violin did not dine out, some one was despatched into the village to try and find one. He soon returned with a violin, the price of which, with the bow, was marked fifteen shillings. This was handed to Ernst, and he gave the very first proof of his talent to a select English audience by playing his arrangement of Schubert's 'ErlKing,' for violin alone, an impossible piece, which in his best days he could not play satisfactorily. Upon this wretched instrument and in a more than half-tipsy condition, it was excruciating, and I gave him up for lost ; but, whether it was that his listeners were in the same state as he, or that the extraordinary sounds they heard bewildered them, his triumph was complete! << less