Few Roumanian ladies sing or play with any degree of proficiency and my experience in Bucharest salons, to which musical performances are admitted as an element of social diversion, have penetrated me with the conviction that there is not a single first-class pianoforte in the whole city. Even executants of real merit, like the Princess Jon Ghica, appear content to play upon second and third-rate instruments, whilst in the houses of wealthy Boyars whose names are historical landmarks, may be found objects bearing the aspect and dignified by the title of pianofortes, which, considered as mediums for the production of musical sounds, have no more affinity to a Bechstein or a Bluethner than a child's toyfiddle has to a Stradivarius or an Amati.