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Very little has been recorded of his social habits. Anything like
excess in wine is not once mentioned; but it is easy to see from
his correspondence that he enjoyed a good dinner, and was not
insensible to creature comforts. Writing to Artaria from Esterhaz
in 1788, he says: "By-the-bye, I am very much obliged to you for
the capital cheese you sent me, and also the sausages, for which
I am your debtor, but shall not fail when an opportunity offers
to return the obligation." In a subsequent letter to Frau von
Genzinger he comically laments the change from Vienna to
Esterhaz: "I lost twenty pounds in weight in three days, for the
effect of my fare at Vienna disappeared on the journey. 'Alas!
alas!' thought I, when driven to eat at the restaurateurs,
'instead of capital beef, a slice of a cow fifty years old;
instead of a ragout with little balls of force-meat, an old sheep
with yellow carrots; instead of a Bohemian pheasant, a tough
grill; instead of pastry, dry apple fritters and hazelnuts, etc.!
Alas! alas! would that I now had many a morsel I despised in
Vienna! Here in Esterhaz no one asks me, Would you like some
chocolate, with milk or without? Will you take some coffee, with
or without cream? What can I offer you, my good Haydn? Will you
have vanille ice or pineapple?' If I had only a piece of good
Parmesan cheese, particularly in Lent, to enable me to swallow
more easily the black dumplings and puffs! I gave our porter this
very day a commission to send me a couple of pounds." Even amid
the social pleasures and excitements of London, where he was
invited out six times a week and had "four excellent dishes" at
every dinner, he longs to be back in his native land so that he
may have "some good German soup."
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