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HAUTBOYS. |
55 |
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fifes " for the infantry, whereas the " bands of music " were supported by a fund maintained mostly by the officers. Grose, the author of " Military Antiquities" (1786) tells a good story, in this connection, of the Duke of Marlborough, when he was General Church-hill. One day at a big review he was asked by the king, what had become of his "hautboys."1 The general struck his hand on his breeches' pocket so as to make his money rattle, and answered : " Here they are please Your Majesty, don't you hear them ?" The hero of Blenheim didn't believe in the "band fund," evidently! |
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'The title "band" or "band of music" was not generally adopted until the nineteenth century, although I find that Blackwell in his "Compendium of Military Discipline," 1726, speaks of the "band of music," and yet as late as 1834-5 the "Army Estimates" allow for "hautboys." |
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