Auld lang syne

The volume gathers personal reminiscences penned during enforced rest, presenting essays on musical tastes and experiences, literary memories spanning friendships and professional encounters, and recollected meetings with royalty alongside sketches of beggars. It opens with reflections on music's power, education, and changing tastes, moves through episodic literary recollections that interweave anecdotes, critical impressions, and the fallibility of memory, and concludes with brief portraits of regal interactions and the lives of the poor. The overall tone is retrospective and contemplative, offering intimate snapshots of cultural life and personal associations from an older scholar's perspective.