 Elgar finished the piece in July 1888, when he was romantically involved with Caroline Alice Roberts, and he called it ""Liebesgruss"" ('Love's Greeting') because of Miss Roberts' fluency in German.On their engagement she had already presented him with a poem ""The Wind at Dawn"" which he set to music and, when he returned home to London on 22 September from a holiday at the house of his friend Dr. Charles Buck in Settle, he gave her "Salut d'Amour" as an engagement present.The dedication was in French