3-071-238 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Leopold at Manchester: soirée in the Free-Trade Hall, 1881. 'The metropolis of the cotton manufacture is both loyal and musical, and was sure, therefore, cordially to greet the Duke of Edinburgh and two other Princes, the Duke of Albany and Prince Christian, going there to plead for a Central Institution to aid the study of music...At seven o'clock, their Royal Highnesses attended the soirée in the Townhall, arranged by the Directors of the Athenaeum, whose President is Mr. Ogden, and Mr. J. Slagg, M.P., the honorary secretary. The assembly, numbering about three thousand ladies and gentlemen, was presided over by the Duke of Edinburgh; and was addressed, both by him and his brother, the Duke of Albany, in speeches of great interest, full of accurate knowledge and original thought, upon the history and prospects of music in England. The other speakers were the Archbishop and Bishop, Sir Frederick Bramwell, Mr. James Heywood, Mr. Slagg, Mr. Leslie, and Dr. Stainer, organist of St. Paul's, London. These proceedings were varied with some excellent glee and part singing, by the Athenaeum Musical Society, under the direction of Dr. Hiles'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.