210 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



and a similar room for the quadrants (l)oth on the ground tloor and with no rooma 

 above them) , and a central computing room, with room for an assistant alcove. It 

 is not connected with the dwelling house. When this was erected the inclosure 

 was nearly doubled. In Dr. Maskelyne's time two small detached rooms were cov- 

 ered with revolving domes for equatorial instruments. Their situation is particularly 

 unfavorable. In the beginning of Dr. Maskelyne's time the dwelling house was 

 extended. About the end of Dr. Maskelyne's time the observing building was 

 extended in preparation for a mural circle, which was not erected till after his death, 

 and some new buildings were erected for library, etc., and for assistants' apart- 

 ments. A building was erected, to be covered with a revolving dome (called the 

 south dome) . An addition was made to the inclosure. The whole inclosure was now 

 about half an acre. It covered the whole of the small steep hill on which the observ- 

 atory stands, quite to the isthmus or neck that connects it with the table-land of the 

 higher side of the park. About 1817 part of the steep dell behind the hill was 

 inclosed as a garden for the astronomer royal. In 1837 part of the table-land 

 beyond the dell was inclosed for the erection of a magnetic observatory. The 

 dwelling house, which was too small, was enlarged in 1836. Thus the present state 

 of the buildings and grounds (1839) is nearly as follows: Whole inclosure about 2^ 

 acres, of which 1 acre or more can never be available for buildings on account of the 

 steepness of the ground, and is used as a garden and waste ground. Whole set of 

 buildings: (1) Dwelling house of the astronomer royal, with the great room above 

 part of it; (2) two domes (east and west domes), detached; (3) detached range of 

 buildings, including Flamsteed's small room, the quadrant room (not used now) , the 

 transit room, the circle room, the library, the chronometer room, the south dome, 

 the computing room, some assistants' apartments (not for their dwelling, but for 

 their comfort or repose in the intervals of observation); (4) magnetic observatory, 

 detached; (5) carpenter's shop, gardener's shop, and other outhouses. 



The extent of ground would not be sufficient if there were not the safety from being 

 surrounded by buildings which is given by the locality within a royal park. 



3. The construction of the observatory has been altered almost entirely by addi- 

 tions. Nearly the whole of the original work remains. The collection of buildings 

 is now exceedingly irregular and in some respects inconvenient. 



4. The astronomer royal is appointed by the first lord of the treasurj^; but his con- 

 nection with the admiralty is so close that the first lord of the admiralty probably has 

 the principal influence in his appointment. He holds his office by warrant under 

 the sign manual of the sovereign. The salary was formerly £100. Bradley and Bliss 

 both held it with professorships at Oxford; but the salary has gradually been raised 

 and is now £800 (subject to a deduction for a fund for superannuation), and it is 

 expected that the astronomer royal shall hold no other office. 



5. The duties of the astronomer royal are not very definite; but undoubtedly he 

 is to attend to the main points of astronomy to the best of his judgment rather than 

 to anything of a discursive nature. The appointment originated in the desire of dis- 

 covering means of finding the longitude at sea, and therefore anything applying to 

 longitude would specially require his attention. In this way the trials of chronome- 

 ters first became a part of his duty, from which by degrees it arose that the care and 

 regular supply of chronometers for the royal navy were imposed upon him, to the 

 great injury of the astronomical efficiency of the observatory. Lately, the chronome- 

 ter business has been confined to rating the chronometers on trial for purchase or 

 navy chronometers brought on shore, with occasional supplies of chronometers to 

 ships by direction of the admiralty, and with general superintendence of the repairs. 



The duties are prescribed, first, by the Queen's warrant, which merely directs the 

 astronomer to apply himself with diligence to observing the heavenly bodies for find- 

 ing out the so-much-desired longitude at sea (the same words as in the warrant 

 originally given to Flamsteed); second, by the official instructions given by the 



