Frances Allitsen

She said of that time, "It was impossible to go out walking of an afternoon without it being imputed that I was going to see the young men come in on the train, where the chief subject of conversation was garments, and the most extravagant excitement sandwich parties."

[6] She began her musical career as a singer and appeared as contralto soloist in Louis Spohr's The Last Judgement at a recital in Kilburn.

She took some of her compositions to Thomas Henry Weist Hill, principal of the Guildhall School of Music, and he expressed his regret that she had put off serious study till so late.

[6] She also wrote two overtures, entitled Undine and Slavonique, a Funeral March, and a Tarantella, (which were performed by the Royal Artillery Band under Cavaliere Ladislao Zavertal,[Note 1] and by the Crystal Palace orchestra), and Caprice, played by pianist Vladimir de Pachmann, a sonata, and other piano pieces.

"[5] In some of her settings of poems by Tennyson and Heine, and in her songs "The Lute Player", "Love is a Bubble" and "Fidelity", Strand Musical Magazine said that she displayed "dramatic talent and virility.