Editing Frédéric Chopin (section)

====Tour of Great Britain====
[[File:Jane stirling par deveria.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[Jane Stirling]] with young Fanny Elgin, {{circa|1830|lk=no}}]]
Chopin's public popularity as a virtuoso began to wane, as did the number of his pupils, and this, together with the political strife and instability of the time, caused him to struggle financially.{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=556}} In February 1848, with the cellist [[Auguste Franchomme]], he gave his last Paris concert, which included three movements of the [[Cello Sonata (Chopin)|Cello Sonata Op. 65]].{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=424}}

In April, during the 1848 Revolution in Paris, he left for London, where he performed at several concerts and numerous receptions in great houses.{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=424}} This tour was suggested to him by his Scottish pupil [[Jane Stirling]] and her elder sister. Stirling also made all the logistical arrangements and provided much of the necessary funding.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§5 ¶3}}

In London, Chopin took lodgings at [[Dover Street]], where the firm of [[John Broadwood and Sons|Broadwood]] provided him with a grand piano. At his first engagement, on 15 May at [[Stafford House]], the audience included [[Queen Victoria]] and [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]]. The Prince, who was himself a talented musician, moved close to the keyboard to view Chopin's technique. Broadwood also arranged concerts for him; among those attending were the author [[William Makepeace Thackeray]] and the singer [[Jenny Lind]]. Chopin was also sought after for piano lessons, for which he charged the high fee of one [[Guinea (British coin)|guinea]] per hour, and for private recitals for which the fee was 20 guineas. At a concert on 7 July he shared the platform with Viardot, who sang arrangements of some of his mazurkas to Spanish texts.{{sfn|Załuski|Załuski|1992|pp=227–229}} A few days later, he performed for [[Thomas Carlyle]] and his wife [[Jane Carlyle|Jane]] at [[Carlyle's House|their home]] in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]].<ref>{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Nvdx-4-CzoC |title=The Carlyle Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8386-3792-0 |editor-last=Cumming |editor-first=Mark |location=Madison and Teaneck, New Jersey |pages=91–92 |chapter=Chopin, Frédérick |url-access=limited}}</ref> On 28 August he played at a concert in Manchester's Gentlemen's Concert Hall, sharing the stage with [[Marietta Alboni]] and [[Lorenzo Salvi]].{{sfn|Walker|2018|pp=579–581}}

In late summer he was invited by Jane Stirling to visit Scotland, where he stayed at Calder House near [[Edinburgh]] and at [[Johnstone Castle]] in Renfrewshire, both owned by members of Stirling's family.{{sfn|Załuski|Załuski|1993}} She clearly had a notion of going beyond mere friendship, and Chopin was obliged to make it clear to her that this could not be so. He wrote at this time to Grzymała: "My Scottish ladies are kind, but such bores", and responding to a rumour about his involvement, answered that he was "closer to the grave than the nuptial bed".{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|p=279–280|loc=Letter of 30 October 1848}} He gave a public concert in Glasgow on 27 September,{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=276–278}} and another in Edinburgh at the Hopetoun Rooms on Queen Street (now Erskine House) on 4 October.{{sfn|Walker|2018|p=593}} In late October 1848, while staying at 10 Warriston Crescent in Edinburgh with the Polish physician Adam Łyszczyński, he wrote out his last will and testament{{snd}}"a kind of disposition to be made of my stuff in the future, if I should drop dead somewhere", he wrote to Grzymała.{{sfn|Jachimecki|1937|p=424}}

Chopin made his last public appearance on a concert platform at London's [[Guildhall, London|Guildhall]] on 16 November 1848, when, in a final patriotic gesture, he played for the benefit of Polish refugees. This gesture proved to be a mistake, as most of the participants were more interested in the dancing and refreshments than in Chopin's piano artistry, which drained him.{{sfn|Szulc|1998|p=383}} By this time he was very seriously ill, weighing under 45&nbsp;kg (99 lb), and his doctors were aware that his sickness was at a terminal stage.{{sfn|Samson|2001|loc=§5 ¶4}}

At the end of November Chopin returned to Paris. He passed the winter in unremitting illness, but gave occasional lessons and was visited by friends, including Delacroix and Franchomme. Occasionally he played, or accompanied the singing of [[Delfina Potocka]], for his friends. During the summer of 1849, his friends found him an apartment in [[Chaillot]], out of the centre of the city, for which the rent was secretly subsidised by an admirer, Princess Yekaterina Dmitrievna Soutzos-Obreskova. He was visited here by Jenny Lind in June 1849.{{sfn|Zamoyski|2010|pp=283–286}}