Page:The history of Mendelssohn's oratorio 'Elijah'.djvu/87

 THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION.

��[Mendelssohn to Bartholomew.]

[Written in English.]

"Leipzig, July 2S, 1846.*

" My dear Sir, — Here are the metronomes, which I beg you will give the director of the choruses ; but tell him that I cannot promise they will be exactly the same, but nearly so, I think.

remarks about the song [' rest in the Lord ']. I do not recollect having heard the Scotch ballad to which you allude, and certainly did not think of it, and did not choose to imitate it ; but as mine is a song to which I always had an objection (of another kind), and as the ballad seems much known, and the likeness very striking, and before all, as you wish it, I shall leave it out altogether (I think), and have altered the two last bars of the preceding recitative, so that the chorus in F may follow it immediately. Perhaps I shall bring another song in its stead, but I doubt it, and even believe it to be an improvement if it is left out.
 * Many thanks for 5'our last letter, with the

'* You receive here Nos. 36, 38, and 39. The only piece which is not now in your hands is No. 37, a song of Elijah [' For the mountains shall depart ']. And this (and perhaps one song to be introduced in the

of " O rest in the Lord," also in Mendelssohn's own hand, were personally presented by the late Mrs. Mounsey Bartholomew to the Guildhall Library, in May, 18S0. But both MSS. suddenly and mysteriously disappeared at the time, and have not since been found. See The Times, May 15, 1880, p. 13. ( 69 )
 * The original autograph of this letter, together with a MS. copy

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