Laura E. Richards, Maud Howe, Florence Howe Hall, Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, in two volumes, with portraits and other illustrations: volume 1

She loved the older operas best. After an air from “Don Giovanni,” she would say, “Mozart must be in heaven: they could never get on without him!” She thought Handel's “Messiah” the most divine point reached by earthly music. Beethoven awed and swayed her deeply, and she often quoted his utterance while composing, “Ich trat in der Ndhe Gottes!” She thrilled with tender pleasure over Verdi's “Non ti scordar,” or “Ai nostri monti,” and over “Martha.” She enjoyed Chopin “almost too much.” “He is exquisite,” she would say, “but somehow — rotten!”

Among the pleasures of this winter was a visit to, New York. She writes after it:--

“My last day in my dear son's house. He and Fannie have been devotedly kind to me. They made me occupy their room, much to my bodily comfort, but to the great disquiet of my mind, as I hated much to inconvenience them. My son has now a very eminent position.... God bless the house and all in it.”

“ December 17. The Old South Chapter of D. A.R.'s, met in the real Old South Church; there was much good speaking. I recited my ‘Battle Hymn’ and boasted my descent from General Marion, the Swamp Fox, saying also, ‘When, eluding the vigilance of children and grandchildren, I come to such a meeting as this, without a previous promise not to open my lips, I think that I show some of the dexterity of my illustrious relative.’ I also had to spring up and tell them that my grandmother, niece to General Marion, gave ”