Jenny Lind the Artist by Henry Scott Holland

From this time forward Mdlle. Lind was greeted in London, by all classes of society, with the most flattering marks of esteem and admiration. The Queen received her with marked attention. The Queen-Dowager invited her to visit Her Majesty in private. The Duke of Wellington was most sedulous in his demonstrations of respect and admiration, and, on one occasion, invited her to his country-seat, promising that music should form no topic of the conversation. Invitations poured in, from every side, in numbers which it would have been quite impossible for her to have accepted, even had her time been entirely at her own disposal. But, though compelled by her duties at the theatre to devote so many hours of the day to study and rehearsal, she did not entirely shut herself out from the pleasures of society. Mrs. Grote, who accompanied her one evening to a private concert at Lansdowne House to which she had been invited as an auditor, gives an interesting account, in her MS. _Memoir_, of the excitement caused by her first appearance in the reception-room, when, at the moment of her entrance, all other visitors were forgotten, in the desire to meet her with a cordial welcome.

"I was not a little amused," she says, "to observe the Duke of Wellington approach, with the intention of making his bow to Lady Lansdowne; but, finding it hopeless to catch her attention-so engrossed was she with Mdlle. Lind-he quietly passed unnoticed into the Sculpture Gallery, where a vocal concert was about to commence. I at length proposed to Jenny that we should take our places there, also; and we soon found ourselves in the middle of a brilliant company, whose eyes were frequently bent in the direction of our seats. Jenny, who was always very impatient under this kind of scrutiny, felt vexed at it; but there was no escape. The concert proceeded; the artists comprising all the ‘stars' of the two rival houses, herself only excepted. The first part over, I was besieged by persons of my acquaintance, with requests to be introduced to Mdlle. Lind: Lady Pembroke, and her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Sidney Herbert, Lady Lincoln, with one or two other ladies obtained the privilege, and continued to talk to her, until Jenny, impatient to escape, whispered to me, ‘Let us go and look at the pictures. ' So we went into the rooms through which we had entered, and looked at the pictures, which interested her far more than the music. Meanwhile, the concert had re-commenced, so that we could not resume our places conveniently; accordingly Jenny begged me to go away, which we presently did. As we drove home to Clairville, I expressed myself highly satisfied with the flattering attentions of which she had been the object during the evening. She rejoined: ‘Dear Madame, you are much more proud for me than I am for myself. It certainly was a splendid sight; but I would rather have been rambling with you among the Burnham beeches, after all."