Harry agreed, albeit reluctantly, to try living in London for a year. In May 1869 he and Georgina, accompanied by a servant maid and three pugs, left Beaumaris and took the train to the capital. Georgina was to stay with her mother in Stratford Place, and Harry with Freddy Warre, whilst they looked for lodgings.

By this time a great plan was beginning to evolve in Georgina's mind. Since her theatrical ambitions had been thwarted, she would become a music teacher instead. She had already achieved some success with her first pupil, a sickly, nervous girl called Gwendoline Jones, the daughter of a clergyman and goddaughter to Georgina's friend Catherine Wynne Jones. In 1866 Catherine had brought Gwen to see Georgina. The girl, who was said to have ‘a great taste for music’, had already had some lessons with Manuel García at the Royal Academy of Music in London and wished to become a professional singer. Her neighbours all thought that she had ‘such a sweet voice’ and sang ‘so charmingly’. Georgina, as ‘the great musical oracle of the county’ was asked to hear her sing. She agreed to do so, and gave her opinion that Gwen's talent was ‘very mediocre’ and ‘needed cultivation’. The girl was, moreover, ‘very unattractive in appearance’ and had ‘no more manner than might be expected of a Welsh goat’. Nevertheless, Catherine begged her friend to take the girl under her wing, to help her with her singing and to sing with her. Flattered by this request, and wishing to please the older woman who had been kind to her, Georgina agreed.

During the first few months of 1867 Gwen came for a lesson every few days – rather more often than she was really wanted. But she soon fell ill and returned to her parents, suffering (it was said) from ‘hysteria’. Two years later, just before the Weldons left Beaumaris, Gwen turned up again, apparently recovered, and told Georgina that she wished to settle in London, to study singing seriously, and to become a professional singer. She begged Georgina to recommend a suitable master. Georgina suggested that they should try Alberto Randegger, a well-known music teacher and composer, who had recently been appointed professor of singing at the Royal Academy.