HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



went <i\vr to England." 1 Ilt-rsclid's i'rirnds did not 

 kn<>w how to gloss ovt i this unhappy passage in his 

 What they said in England \\a> M \vil- <f thr 

 reality as what In* unl'ortunat.-ly said of himself 

 "Unable, however, long to endure tin- drudgny of 

 such a situation, and conscious of superior pr.>ii 

 in his art, he determined on <niittii);_; th- iv<_rini, nt , ' 

 and arrived in Kn^land in tin- nd <>!' 17.")7. This is 

 not a barefaced statement of nut ruth, like the resigna- 

 tion of his position in the band. 2 But the moth IT'S 

 foolishness was singularly <>v -i -nil. -d for good. 



Of William I Irrschel's wanderings after escaping from 

 the beaten army of Cumberland the pa^ s that arc torn 

 out of his sister's journal would probably have g 

 information, but it is not till two years ha\ passed 

 that we again hear of him. He was then in Knidand, 

 along with his eldest brother, Jacob. On Jacob's n-t urn 

 home in the end of 1759, William ivmainrd lu-hiud, 

 studying apparently the theory of music. Many of 

 his letters to Jacob on that subject were written in 

 Kurdish, a proof apparently that his ,,iind \VMS mad.- 

 up not to seek his fortunes els'-wln-n-. I'W fivcy.ai 

 he again almost disappears from view, till In- r 

 on a short visit to his Hanover home in the s]rin^ of 

 1764, to the joy of his family, especially of his father, 

 then an invalid, and of his youn^ sister, Caroline. 

 In the interval his musical ability obtained for him in 

 his adopted country the post of bandmaster to a r iri- 

 ment, stationed in one of the northern counties, said 

 to have been the Durham Militia. The Earl of 

 Darlington is said to have selected him "to super- 



1 Quoted in Holden'a Lift and Works of William Iferscful, p. 4. 

 1 Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xcii. (1822). 



