I'S^ AstROXOMV IN WANStEAb. 



material and references on this subject, I was lately induced to give 

 an outline of this chapter in our "^Vanstead Parish Magazine," re- 

 counting the fortunes of the astronomers of "W^anstead, and the 

 famous Telescope and Maypole. I have since enlarged this account, 

 trusting it may be worthy of preservation in a more permanent 

 form. 



The period in which this quiet rural village attained its scit^ntific 

 zenith was from the year 1707 to 1749. In the former year Dr. 

 James Pound, F.R.S., had been presented to the rectorate by Sir 

 Richard Child, Bart., of ^\'anstead House. Dr. Pound was born at 

 Bishop's Canning, in ^Vilts, 16(19. In 1687 he went to St. Mary's 

 Hall, Oxford, and in Februar\-, i()i)4, was at Hart Hall, and took 

 his first degree, passing to M.A. on 6th June the same year. He 

 subsequently studied at Gloucester Hall, and in 1697 took the 

 degree of B.M. with a licence to practise medicine. Then he was 

 ordained, and went out as chaplain to the settlement in Pulo 

 Condore about 1700. In a letter of Bishop Tanner's, dated Septem- 

 ber, 1704, in the Bodleian Library, we find : "My brother Moore has 

 come home from the East Indies ; left our honest countryman. Dr. 

 Pound, well .... he has a mind to come home, but the 

 Governor tells him that if the Doctor goes, he and the rest of the 

 company wJl not stay behind." By the rising of the Indians in 

 1705 the settlement was destroyed, and Dr. Pound was one of the 

 very few who escaped, returning to England in 1706 : and in July 

 of the next year was appointed rector of ^Vanstead. Here he lived 

 the remainder of his life, and became well known as a naturalist, 

 and a most competent and accurate astronomer. 



Among the instruments used by him was one of the large 

 telescopes constructed by the learned philosopher of the Hague, 

 Christian Huygens, of Zulichem, who was one of the first elected 

 foreign members of the Royal Society of London in 1663, and had 

 presented this telescope to the Society in 1691. 



The general form of this instrument, which was designed to be 

 used without the aid of a tube, is fully described and figured in his 

 " Astroscopia Compendiaria," quarto, The Hague, 1 684. The construc- 

 tion (in brief) was thus : The object glass (which in the present case 

 has a focal length of 122 feet), was fixed in a tube attached to a rod, 

 to this rod a stout cord was fixed, the other end of which was 

 attached to another rod with a winch to wind up the cord, and to 

 the end of this rod the eyepiece was fixed. This eyepiece consisted 



