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of William Herschel.
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with Herschel. 'What chance have you,' said I, 'to follow this man?' He replied, 'I don't know; I am sure fingers will not do.' On which he ascended the organ loft, and produced from the organ so uncommon a fulness, such a volume of slow, solemn harmony, that I could by no means account for the effect. After this short ex tempore effusion, he finished with the Old Hundredth psalm-tune, which he played better than his opponent.
"'Ay, ay,' cried old Snetzler, 'tish is very goot, very goot indeet; I vil luf tish man, for he gives my piphes room for to shpeak.' Having afterwards asked Mr. Herschel by what means, in the beginning of his performance, he produced so uncommon an effect, he replied, 'I told you fingers would not do!' and producing two pieces of lead from his waistcoat pocket, 'one of these,' said he, 'I placed on the lowest key of the organ, and the other upon the octave above; thus by accommodating the harmony, I produced the effect of four hands, instead of two.'"[1]The dates in this extract are not so well defined as might be wished. Herschel had certainly been more than a few months in England at the time of his meeting with Dr. Miller, which was probably about 1760. The appointment as organist at Halifax was
- ↑ The Doctor; by Robert Southey, edition of 1848, p. 140.
