home of the Haydns, some four leagues from Rohrau. He came
occasionally to Rohrau to see his relatives, and one day he
surprised Haydn keeping strict time to the family music on his
improvised fiddle. Some discussion following about the boy's
unmistakable talent, the schoolmaster generously offered to take
him to Hainburg that he might learn "the first elements of music
and other juvenile acquirements." The father was pleased; the
mother, hesitating at first, gave her reluctant approval, and
Haydn left the family home never to return, except on a flying
visit. This was in 1738, when he was six years of age.

Hainburg

The town of Hainburg lies close to the Danube, and looks very
picturesque with its old walls and towers. According to the
Nibelungen Lied, King Attila once spent a night in the place, and
a stone figure of that "scourge of God" forms a feature of the
Hainburg Wiener Thor, a rock rising abruptly from the river,
crowned with the ruined Castle of Rottenstein. The town cannot be
very different from what it was in Haydn's time, except perhaps
that there is now a tobacco manufactory, which gives employment
to some 2000 hands.

It is affecting to think of the little fellow of six dragged away
from his home and his mother's watchful care to be planted down
here among strange surroundings and a strange people. That he was
not very happy we might have assumed in any case. But there were,
unfortunately, some things to render him more unhappy than he
need have been. Frankh's intentions were no doubt excellent; but
neither in temper nor in character was he a fit guardian and