William was nineteen when he ran away. His good mother packed hisboxes for him with such necessaries as she could manage, and sentthem after him to Hamburg; but, to the boy's intense disgust, sheforgot to send the copy of "Locke on the Human Understanding."What a sturdy deserter we have here, to be sure! "She, dearwoman," he says plaintively, "knew no other wants than good linenand clothing!" So William Herschel the oboe-player started offalone to earn his living as best he might in the great world ofEngland. It is strange he should have chosen that, of all Europeancountries; for there alone he was liable to be arrested as adeserter: but perhaps his twelvemonth's stay in London may havegiven him a sense of being at home amongst us which he would havelacked in any other part of Europe. At any rate, hither he came,and for the next three years picked up a livelihood, we know nothow, as many other excellent German bandsmen have done before andsince him. 0ur information about his early life is fairly meagre,and at this period we lose sight of him for a while altogether.