Page:Sir William Herschel, his life and works (1881).djvu/47

The society was then gay and polite, and Herschel was at once thrown into a far more intelligent atmosphere than that he had just left in Yorkshire. It was easy to get new books, to see new faces, to hear new things. The Assembly Rooms (built in 1771) were noted for their size and elegance; the theatre was the best out of London.

His position as organist of the fashionable chapel placed him in the current. His charming and engaging manners made him friends. His talents brought him admirers and pupils, and pupils brought him money.^[1]

He began in 1766 a life of unceasing activity, which continued. In 1768 he published in London a symphony (in C) for two violins, viola, bass, two oboes, and two horns, and in the same year two military concertos for two oboes, two horns, two trumpets, and two bassoons.^[2] He wrote pieces for the

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1. He frequently gave thirty-five and thirty-eight lessons a week to pupils at this time.
2. According to Fétis. A search for these in London has led me to the belief that Fétis, who is usually very accurate, is here mistaken, and that these writings are by Jacob Herschel.

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