first presentation. George III. was not a particularly wise or brilliant
man; but even he had sense enough to perceive that William Herschel
could serve the country far better by mapping out the stars of heaven
than by playing the oboe to the royal regiment of Hanoverian Guards.

William was nineteen when he ran away. His good mother packed his boxes
for him with such necessaries as she could manage, and sent them after
him to Hamburg, but, to the boy's intense disgust, she forgot to send
the copy of "Locke on the Human Understanding." What a sturdy deserter
we have here, to be sure! "She, dear woman," he says plaintively, "knew
no other wants than good linen and clothing!" So William Herschel the
oboe player started off alone to earn his living as best he might in the
great world of England. It is strange he should have chosen that, of all
European countries; for there alone he was liable to be arrested as a
deserter: but perhaps his twelvemonth's stay in London may have given
him a sense of being at home amongst us which he would have lacked in
any other part of Europe. At any rate, hither he came, and for the next
three years picked up a livelihood, we know not how, as many other
excellent German bandsmen have done before and since him. Our
information about his early life is very meagre, and at this period we
lose sight of him for a while altogether.

About the year 1760, however, we catch another incidental glimpse of the
young musician in his adopted country. By that time, he had found
himself once more a regular post as oboist to the Durham militia, then
quartered for its muster at Pontefract. A certain Dr. Miller, an
organist at Doncaster, was dining one evening at the officers' mess;
when his host happened to speak to him in high praise of a young German
they had in their band, who was really, he said, a most remarkable and
spirited performer. Dr. Miller asked to see (or rather hear) this clever