2-888-357 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Departure of Mdelle. Jenny Lind from Liverpool for America, 1850. The Swedish singer sets off amid a '...magnificent display of public feeling and sympathy...the booming of cannon and the shouts of the thousands who were assembled on either side of the Mersey, and eyes dazzled by the gay effect of innumerable craft, illumined by the sun-light as they ran to and fro on the river, or followed in the wake of the Atlantic...Instead of leaving at nine or ten o'clock, as had been arranged, Jenny Lind was obliged to slip out privately at a quarter to eight, and go down all manner of back streets to be able to get to the pier unperceived...a crowd of idlers pressed around her in the most rude manner, and could scarcely be kept off by the police. When will this nuisance be abated? When will the English learn to treat great or distinguished persons as such...?'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.