Page:Hector Macpherson - Herschel (1919).djvu/15

Rh "My brothers," she says, "were often introduced as solo performers and assistants in the orchestra of the court, and I remember that I was frequently prevented from going to sleep by the lively criticism on music on coming home from a concert, or conversations on philosophical subjects which lasted frequently till morning. . . . Generally their conversation would branch out on philosophical subjects, when my brother William and my father often argued with such warmth that my mother's interference became necessary when the names Leibnitz, Newton, and Euler sounded rather too loud for the repose of her little ones, who ought to be in school by seven in the morning."

The family circle was temporarily dispersed in the end of 1755. The times were stormy: the Seven Years' War was raging: a French invasion of England was expected, and the Hanoverian Guards were drafted across the North Sea. Accordingly, Isaac Herschel and his two sons left Hanover with the regiment. Embarking at Cuxhaven in the end of March 1756, they reached Chatham after a passage of sixteen days. The Guards were encamped successively at Maidstone, Coxheath, and Rochester. The Herschels' sojourn in England was by no means profitless. At Coxheath as well as at Maidstone, Herschel tells us, "my father, my eldest brother and myself made several valuable acquaintances with families that were fond of music, and which, on mine and my brother's return to England, proved of great service to us". At Maidstone, too, young William Herschel purchased a copy of Locke's "Essay on the Human Understanding". The perusal of this volume—the only thing he took with him from England—not only stimulated his interest in philosophy, but familiarised him with the English language.

In the end of 1756, the Guards were ordered back to Hanover, owing to the French threat to the country. Early in the following year, the regiment went into the