and on the right a lyre crowned with a star, and on the
left a laurel wreath encircling the date '31 January, 1797.'

Nothing more than this inscribed tablet will be needed to bring home
to your mind the fact that you are actually face to face with the
house in which Schubert, the composer of those beautiful songs, 'The
Erl King,' 'Hark, hark, the Lark,' and 'Sylvia,' first saw the light.
And as you stand before the home of the great song-writer your
thoughts will revert in fancy to the time when, a century ago, there
issued from that doorway the figure of a boy of eleven years of age,
clad in a suit of grey so light as to be almost white, with chubby
face, bright dark eyes, with a sparkle in them that the spectacles
which he wore could not hide, and a head of thick, curly, black hair.
That boy was Franz Schubert, setting out for his examination to be
admitted as a scholar at the Imperial Convict, as the school for
educating the choristers of the Chapel Royal in Vienna was called.

The son of Franz Schubert, a schoolmaster in the Lichtenthal district,
whose character for uprightness and honesty, in addition to his
abilities, had won him the respect and esteem of all who knew him,
little Franz had from the first shown a remarkable fondness for music.
The family were in poor circumstances, the father having sprung from a
peasant stock, and by his own industry and a natural gift for teaching
succeeded in raising himself to his present position, whilst his wife
Elizabeth, in every way a perfect helpmeet for a poor man, was
likewise of humble origin. Franz Schubert had nothing to depend upon
but his schoolmaster's pay, and the family included, besides little
Franz, three boys and a girl. Nevertheless, such encouragement as
could be given to Franz in his love for music was given heartily and
sympathetically, for there could not have been a more devoted family
than his. At the first, however, Franz showed his independence by
making friends with a joiner's apprentice, who used to take him to a
certain pianoforte warehouse in the town, where, to his joy, he was
permitted to play little tunes on one of the instruments. At home
there was only an old, worn-out piano to practise upon, but with the
aid of this and frequent visits to the warehouse the boy managed to
acquire unaided a certain groundwork in music, so that when, at the
age of seven, his father began to give him lessons on the violin he
found that Franz had already made