496 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



old records were made 50 or 60 years ago by Mr. J. R. Hind, 

 whose work has quite recently been most admirably revised, 

 corrected and extended by Mr. P. H. Cowell and Mr. A. C. 

 Crommelin, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. These 

 gentlemen have carried back the identification of this comet, 

 mainly from Chinese records, to the year 240 B.C., which makes 

 the present its twenty-ninth recorded appearance. One of 

 these appearances was in 1066, one of the first dates Normans 

 learnt at school and probably the last they are likely to forget. 

 Mr. Hind's work was not undertaken until after the last 

 appearance of this comet in 1835. He then suspected that it 

 was the same body as that which appeared in 1066, but it 

 has been left to the two gentlemen just named definitely to 

 establish its identity ; its present appearance, therefore, is the 

 first since proof has been obtained that, in the words of the 

 Astronomer-Royal, " the comet of April 1066 was certainly 

 Halley's comet." It is that appearance which is considered 

 of sufficient interest to Normans to deserve special notice, 

 although it is difficult to find language capable of doing justice 

 to the importance of the occasion. 



II. Review — Mainly Historical 



The comet appeared, as has been mentioned, in April 1066. 

 The records show that it was an unusually brilliant object 

 and that its appearance produced a profound impression on 

 all who saw it. 



Let us now carry our minds back to that period and recall 

 the happenings, in England and Normandy, of the three 

 months preceding that April. 



Edward the Confessor died on January 5, 1066. He died 

 childless. It seems that, some years before, he had promised 

 William, Duke of Normandy, that he should succeed to the 

 crown of England on his death. During the previous year, 

 1065 (or possibly this may have been in 1064), Harold, then 

 undoubtedly the most powerful man in England, while the 

 (involuntary) guest of William in Normandy, had recognised 

 and, so far as he could be said to do such a thing, confirmed 

 this promise ; furthermore he had sworn upon a boxful of holy 

 relics to support William's claim to the English throne after 

 Edward's death. 



When Edward was at the point of death, Harold prevailed 



