ABSTRACT
L ydia Thompson arrived back in Britain in the summer of 1859. If her irreplaceable collection of specially composed and collected music and her orchestrations had gone up in smoke in the St. Petersburg fire, along with goodness knows what in the way of costumes, there can be lit tle doubt that she came home with a fat purse and with an overflowing jewel case and “souvenir” satchel. It looked as if she were set up for life. Oh no, going to Europe had not been such a bad idea of whoever s after all.
