Horticulture

Papa insists that a babe is like a sapling and requires every bit of one's attention. You feed it, you water it, you watch it grow. He is certain that my son knows his A from his B and his C from his D. It would seem his small fingers curve on the coverlet with all the natural delicacy of a keyboard player and bear little resemblance to a tree. As his mother, I am told to rest assured.
It would seem his uncle - that well tended plant, has found success in Vienna with his subscription concerts and his string quartets. Papa paid a visit to Vienna in time for Lent and reports that Herr Joseph Haydn turned to him at the end of one of these concerts and said: ‘Before God and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me in person or by name.’ N.