26 HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



igad 1 1< i (hoi to apply for the organist's pirn in 

 Halifax. But Miss Herwli.-! in 1822 speaks of Mr 

 I iu 1 iimn from Leeds, the grandson of my 1 -P. HUT'S 

 earliest ar|uaintanc' in this country," 1 and trlls us 

 that in ITti! h- paid th-'in in llano\vra l' Tt ni-lit 's 



forkahin <\\ IMT- in- HUM 1)0 left 

 for Holm- thin-)." Tin- organist's ] Halifax doaq 



not dat- bom I7;n. l.ut IY..H, I7i;:, Th. Ino 



m-i.'H between S( ut hry's stm 'amlim- IhTsehrl's 



are too serious to a How us to accept his reman of the 

 means by which the organist's place at Mali lax was 

 -lined in or about 1760 as true of "Herschel the 

 astronomer." It is known that his brother Jacob was 



-land for two years about 1759. 

 While n sident in Halifax, Herschel appears to have 

 paid a visit to Italy, the ancient land of poetry and 

 astronomy. Our authority for this is Niemeyer, Chan- 

 cellor of the University of Halle, who visited Her 

 at Slough shortly before his death, and seems to have 

 received the details of the journey from his own lips. 

 \V 1 1 1 -n he reached Genoa on his way home, he found h i i n - 

 self short of money to meet expenses. He had gone to 

 Italy to " improve himself in his profession of music " ; 

 and he put his improvement to use "by an original 

 kind of concert he gave in that town, in which h- 

 played on the harp and on two horns fastened on his 

 shoulders at the same time." He procured th. money 

 he needed, and, had he not been proud of his youth- 

 ful success as a musician, would not have told the 

 story, fifty years after, to his learned and distinguished 

 visitor, as either he or his sister Caroline must 

 have done. Her Memoirs contain no information on 



1 Memoirs, pp. 137, 326. 



