Commemoration in Westminster Abbey. He must have known some of Handel's
oratorios, for Mozart had rescored them for van Swieten's concerts in
Vienna; now he heard for the first time how the giant could indeed smite
like a thunderbolt when he chose. However, during his next stay in
London he had fuller opportunities of listening to Handel, and we will
leave the matter until a few pages later. He attended about this time a
service of charity children in St. Paul's Cathedral, and was strangely
moved by a ridiculous old chant of Peter Jones, the effect being due, of
course, to the fresh children's voices. He remarked on it in his diary,
and wise commentators have pointed out that in writing the chant down he
"beautified" it with passing notes. Of course, all organists of the
period--and until a considerably later period--"beautified" everything
they played in precisely the same fashion, and naturally the children
would follow the organ. There remain to mention now only his friendship
with Bartolozzi the engraver, and Mrs. Hodges, "the loveliest woman I
ever saw" (ah! that inflammable heart), and the friendship with John
Hunter, the surgeon, and his wife. Mrs. Hunter wrote the words for most
of the twelve English canzonets. Mrs. Hodges composed, and some pieces
by her, copied in Haydn's hand, with a note by him, were found amongst
his papers.

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