Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

LISZT 93
room opposite to that of the great Hummel (a fine old
grand, on which it was understood that I was not to
play, it being a precious family relic of their deceased
grandfather). The rooms which they had let to me
were, indeed, full of most interesting mementoes of
the past. There was a lock of Beethoven's hair, cut
from his head by the wife of Hummel, who, with her
husband, visited him three or four days before his
death. There was also a lock of Goethe's hair ; and
both of these were enclosed in glass frames, and hung
on the wall like pictures. Another of these frames
contained the last pen Beethoven's fingers had ever
grasped; for on the same occasion when Hummel's
wife had asked him for a lock of his hair, she had
also begged leave to carry away a pen which was
lying on the bed, and Beethoven, who knew he was
dying, put it himself into her hand ; and, as long as
she lived, it was one of her most precious and valued
relics.* At the time when the granddaughters re-
ceived me into their house their grandmother had
only been dead about three months ;
they were still
plunged in the deepest grief for her loss. I could fill
a httle volume with all they related to me about this
interesting and truly estimable woman, who had been
a mother to them in the place of their own, who had
died early—all that she had related to them of her
beloved husband (Hummel), of his playing, of his
manner of teaching, his compositions, his social and
* See note at end of chapter.