Note 43 — Chronological Index of Contents. (continued 15)

These quartet evenings in the society of a few of the families of his most intimate friends, were always a source of great pleasure to Spohr. Every year, on the approach of winter, he took early steps for their re-arrangement, and generally opened the series in his own house. Painful as it was to him whenever the death of one of the members of the circle caused a vacancy therein, the loss of his two oldest and most faithful friends, chief director von Schmerfeld and Lord marshall von der Malsburg, who had died in the two previous years, was long and deeply deplored by him.