He was now a wealthy man.  He returned to Vienna by way of Bonn, where Beethoven submitted a composition to him.  As every one knows, Beethoven soon followed him to Vienna, and took lessons, and complained that Haydn took no pains with him.  Now, Haydn was no pedant; with him the final court of appeal was the ear.  When the theorists said that the celebrated false relations at the opening of Mozart’s C major quartet were wrong, Haydn was merely impatient; he said that if Mozart wrote them we might depend upon it Mozart had an excellent reason for doing so.  Probably he did not want Beethoven to waste his time on piffling schoolboy exercises.  Anyhow, Beethoven always spoke of him with respect, and Haydn said Beethoven’s septet was sublime.

His stay in Vienna was not a long one.  He again agreed with Salomon to compose six new symphonies, and come to London to conduct them.  On January 17, 1794, he set out.  Prince Anton was unwilling for him to leave, and died three days afterwards.  In many respects this visit was a duplicate of the first.  The symphonies he wrote were the “Military” in G, and the D minor, both 1794; the E flat, apparently composed in 1793, and the B flat, E flat, and D minor and major, all 1795.  The last, one of his finest, with certainly his finest introductory adagio, is probably the last symphony he wrote.  It is not only dated 1795, but has the composer’s note that it is the twelfth he wrote in England.  As we shall see, he directed his attention to another style of music on his return to Vienna.  Meantime, in London he was incessantly occupied, was honoured by royalty and them that were great in the land, he amassed money, and he saw much of his beloved Mrs. Schroeter.  The King and Queen asked him to spend the summer at Windsor, and to settle in England.  Haydn’s reply was that he could not leave his prince.  Prince Anton was dead, but a new Nicolaus reigned in his stead, and Haydn obviously regarded himself as a kind of family servant whose services pass to the next heir.  It was during this visit that he heard so much of Handel.  We must remember that at this time Handel was the musical god of England.  George III. could barely stand any other music, and the public were almost, though not quite, of their royal master’s way of thinking.  Haydn they admired vastly; but it was found advisable to mix up a good deal of Handel’s music with his on the programmes of the concerts at the King’s theatre.  There were also Handel performances at Covent Garden.  Such effects as that of the throbbing mass of vocal tone in the chorus from Joshua, “The people shall tremble,” must have overwhelmed him, and the swift directness and colossal climaxes of the “Hallelujah” from the Messiah certainly impressed him.  However great the revelation of Handel’s supreme might, Haydn never imitated Handel’s style or devices for getting huge effects; the artistic treatment he received in London, as well as the social treatment, the flattery and petting,