[1] Born in Bishop's Castle, Shropshire, Legge read law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and then went abroad to study music and languages in Leipzig, Frankfurt, Florence and Munich.
[2] While in Europe he encountered many prominent composers and musicians including Edvard Grieg, Frederick Delius, Percy Grainger, Raimund Mühlen, Arthur Nikisch (to whom he taught English), Ethel Smyth and Julius Stockhausen.
[4] He was one of the first to recognise the genius of Edward Elgar,[5] acknowledged Puccini when he was unfashionable, and took the early days of the gramophone seriously.
[1][6] Legge was a sociable and humorous man who enjoyed billiards (which he played on occasion with Compton Mackenzie)[7] and chess, and was an active member of the Savile Club.
[8] H. C. Colles wrote that Legge had "stimulated the general reader's interest in music and musicians to an uncommon extent".