Page:Sir William Herschel, his life and works (1881).djvu/29

Rh 1718), was employed in the royal gardens at Dresden, and seems to have been a man of taste and skill in his calling. Of his eldest son,, there appears to be little trace in the records of the family. The second son, , died in infancy; the third, , was born in 1707 (Jan. 14), and was thus an orphan at eleven years of age. was the father of the great astronomer.

He appears to have early had a passionate fondness for music, and this, added to a distaste for his father's calling, determined his career. He was taught music by an oboe-player in the royal band, and he also learned the violin. At the age of twenty-one he studied music for a year under the Cappelmeister, at Potsdam, and in August, 1731, he became oboist in the band of the Guards, at Hanover. In August, 1732, he married. She appears to have been a careful and busy wife and mother, possessed of no special faculties which would lead us to attribute to her care any great part of the abilities of her son.