KEW OBSERVATORY 155 



death by Bradley, resulted in the demonstration 

 of the aberration of light. Frederick, Prince of 

 Wales, son of George II, leased the house from 

 Molyneux, and subsequently the Princess of Wales, 

 mother of George III, resided there, and the observa- 

 tory became disused. The fact that, as matters stood, 

 the transit of Venus in 1769 could not be observed 

 from Kew was brought to the notice of the King, 

 who thereupon caused the observatory in the Old 

 Deer Park to be erected from the designs of Sir 

 William Chambers. The first superintendent was 

 Stephen Demainbray the elder, who made the obser- 

 vations on the transit from the new observatory, and 

 held his post until his death in 1782. The King 

 was often at the observatory, and took much interest 

 in its equipment, not only with instruments, but with 

 models and natural history and mineralogical collec- 

 tions, so that the institution bade fair at one time 

 to become one for general scientific purposes. This 

 promise, no doubt fortunately, was not realised ; 

 but George IV and William IV maintained the 

 Crown's interest in the establishment, and several 

 members of the Royal Family attended lectures 

 on various branches of physics there. The elder 

 Demainbray was succeeded by his son Stephen, who 

 was assisted by his nephew S. P. Rigaud, the Savilian 

 Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. 



THE OBSERVATORY UNDER THE ASSOCIATION 



In 1841 the Government decided no longer to 

 maintain the observatory and museum at Kew. 

 Demainbray's post had become a sinecure, and he 

 was pensioned. The contents were distributed to 



