was promptly paid by Parliament.

A Valuable Parrot

Among the other attentions bestowed upon him while in London,
mention should be made of the present of a talking parrot. Haydn
took the bird with him, and it was sold for 140 pounds after his
death. Another gift followed him to Vienna. A Leicester
manufacturer named Gardiner--he wrote a book on The Music of
Nature, and other works--sent him half a dozen pairs of cotton
stockings, into which were woven the notes of the Austrian Hymn,
"My mother bids me bind my hair," the Andante from the "Surprise"
Symphony, and other thematic material. These musical stockings,
as a wit has observed, must have come as a REAL surprise to
Haydn. It was this same Leicester manufacturer, we may remark
parenthetically, who annotated the translation of Bombet's Life
of Haydn, made by his fellow-townsman, Robert Brewin, in 1817.

Haydn's return from London was hastened by the receipt of a
communication from Esterhaz. Prince Anton had been succeeded by
his son Nicolaus, who was as fond of music as the rest of his
family, and desired to keep his musical establishment up to the
old standard. During the summer of 1794 he had written to Haydn,
asking if the composer would care to retain his appointment as
director. Haydn was only too glad to assent; and now that his
London engagements were fulfilled, he saw no reason for remaining
longer in England. Accordingly he started for home on the 15th of
August 1795, travelling by way of Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden,
and arriving at Vienna in the early days of September.