839 



WROTTESLEY, LORD. 



WULSTAN. 



8iO 



investigation the result had shown that his catalogue was of first- 

 rate importance, and entitled to implicit confidence. A supplemental 

 catalogue of the right ascensions of fifty-five stars, also observed at 

 Blackheath, appears in the 12th volume of the 'Memoirs.' At the 

 annual meeting of 1841, Mr. Wrottesley was elected president, in 

 which capacity, after his accession to the title of Lord Wrottesley, he 

 delivered two addresst-s on the presentation of the gold medal to Pro- 

 fessor Hansen, of Gotha, in 1842, for his researches in physical astro- 

 nomy, and to Mr. F. Baily in the following year, for the experiments 

 in which he virtually repeated the Cavendish experiments to determine 

 the mean density of the earth. On April 29th, 1841, he had been 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. 



In the beginning of the year 1842, Lord Wrottesley resolved on 

 erecting an observatory near his residence, Wrottesley Hall, and on 

 the 29th of March in that year, the first stone was laid by his youngest 

 son, the late Cameron Wrottesley, Lieut. R.E., who had distinguished 

 himself by his mathematical attainments, and had begun his career as 

 an astronomical observer, which was unhappily terminated by his being 

 killed at the siege of Bomarsund in 1854. The observatory was 

 designed to contain the transit-instrument with which the stars of the 

 Blackheath catalogue had been observed, and an equatorial telescope, 

 with, apartments for the observer. The years which immediately 

 succeeded the foundation of the Wrottesley Observatory, were employed 

 in obtaining its position (N. Lat. 52 37' 2-3", Longitude West of 

 Greenwich, in time. 8m. 53'57s.), and in observations with the equato- 

 rial, which Lord Wrottesley communicated to the Royal Society, and 

 which have been published in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for 

 1851. This communication is entitled ' On the results of periodical 

 observations of the positions and distances of nineteen of the Stars in 

 Sir John Herschel's lists of the Stars favourably situated for the inves- 

 tigation of Parallax contained in Part III. of the Phil. Trans, for 1826, 

 and in Part I. for 1827.' The inquiry to which it relates constitutes 

 another example of the mode of doing good service to astronomy 

 which Lord Wrottesley early prescribed to himself, and which he has 

 steadily pursued. Sir J. F. W. Herschel had shown in the papers 

 referred to, and again in his 'Treatise on Astronomy," that if a star 

 which is optically, though not physically, double (that is, one the 

 component single stars of which appear in close proximity merely on 

 account of their being nearly in the same line of sight, though at different 

 distances from the eye, and not because, revolving about each other in 

 orbits, they constitute a binary system), occupy a certain position with 

 respect to the ecliptic, and one of the components be very much nearer 

 the earth than the other, a considerable periodical and parallactic 

 change will take place in their angle of position, or the angle made 

 with the meridian, by a line drawn through both of them, and that the 

 maximum variation from the mean position will occur at two opposite 

 seasons of the year. Lord Wrottesley determined to devote his equa- 

 torial to a good trial of this method of discovering parallax, and six 

 years' uninterrupted observing, from February 1843 to October 1849, 

 by his assistant and himself, were given to the work. But the obser- 

 vations were attended with great difficulties, and of sixty-nine double 

 stars selected only forty-eight were observed, and only nineteen at 

 both periods of the year. Of these again, the observations of five 

 only deserved much attention, as exhibiting indications of parallax 

 measurable by this method ; but two of them, 32 Eridani and 95 

 Herschel, Lord Wrottesley finally recommended to the notice of 

 astronomers provided with adequate instruments for observing them. 

 Thus the principal result of the labour and assiduity bestowed on this 

 object, was the illustration of the practical difficulty of the method ; 

 and it demonstrated the impolicy of further perseverance, with the 

 instrumental means of the Wrottesley Observatory, especially as in- 

 struments had been erected, both at Liverpool and Oxford, pre- 

 eminently suited to this class of observations. But the zeal which 

 prompted the employment of so much time and force by one astro- 

 nomer in the pursuit of a mode of research proposed to observers 

 by another, deserves the commendation of every lover of science. 

 The paper is worthy of attention in another point of view. The im- 

 portance to the correction and advancement of knowledge, of recording 

 failures, and imperfect success in research, has been insisted upon by 

 the highest authorities ; modern astronomers have been conspicuous 

 in acting on this principle, and have thus encouraged labourers in 

 other departments to submit to the task so un pleasing to themselves, 

 though so beneficial to their successors ; and the candour with which 

 Lord Wrottesley has estimated the amount of success obtained in this 

 arduous inquiry, is equalled only by the devotion and skill displayed 

 in waking and discussing the observations. 



When the star-catalogue of the British Association appeared, he was 

 anxious to perform the same office in respect to that most valuable 

 publication which he had already undertaken and performed in refer- 

 ence to the prior catalogue of the Astronomical Society. For this 

 purpose he selected 1009 stars, with the intention of obtaining at 

 least five observations of each, being those stars which had already 

 been observed at Blackheath, and had been discovered to possess 

 proper motion, with others selected on various accounts. The obser- 

 vations were begun on the 1st of January 1850, and concluded on the 

 24th of December 1853. They were all made and computed by Lord 

 Wrottesley's assistant, Mr. Richard Philpott, an excellent transit- 

 observer, aided in the computations by his second assistant, Mr. 



Frederic Maton, who had charge of the equatorial. The results 

 were communicated to the Royal Astronomical Society, read on the 

 13th of January 1854, and published in voL xxiii. of the' Memoirs.' 



On the resignation of the Earl of Uosse, Lord Wrottesley was pro- 

 posed and chosen president of the Royal Society, at the anniversary 

 meeting of 1854, and has been re-elected to that office in 1855 and 

 1856. Having thus been placed at the head of the most ancient aud 

 venerable of our British and scientific institutions, he availed himself 

 of the first opportunity afforded him, according to established usage of 

 addressing the Royal Society, at the Anniversary of 1855, of taking a 

 review of some of the desiderata of science in this country, with 

 respect both to the wants of the public and to the interest and 

 encouragement of the nation and the government. In his address of 

 1856, he resumed the consideration of the requirements and actual 

 condition of scientific knowledge, in connection with the occupation of 

 Burlington House by the Royal Society, in conjunction with the 

 Linnean and Chemical Societies of London, to which an improved 

 appreciation of science on the part of the existing administration had 

 conduced. 



Lord Wrottesley married, on the 28th of July 1821, Sophia Elizabeth, 

 third daughter of the late Thomas Gifford, Esq., of Chillington in 

 Staffordshire ; and has had a numerous family, of whom two sons 

 have lost their lives in their country's military service, and another 

 has served in the Crimea, in the late war. 



WULSTAN, otherwise WULFSTAN, or sometimes WOLSTAN. 

 Of these names, which appear to be only variations the one of the 

 other, there are three Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastics and writers of more or 

 less celebrity. 



1. WOLSTAN, a monk of Winchester, of the tenth century, to whom 

 all the three forms of the name are given, is the author of a Latin 

 prose Life of Bishop Ethelwold, whose disciple he had been, and also 

 of a work in Latin hexameter verse (with a prologue in elegiacs) on 

 the miracles of St. Swithin. The former, which is a very poor com- 

 position, is printed in the 5th sseculum of Mabillon's ' Acta Sanctorum 

 Ordinis S. Benedicti,' folio, Paris, 1685, pp.. 608-624. Of the latter 

 only the introduction has been printed (in the same volume, pp. 628- 

 635); but the whole is preserved in several manuscript copies. The 

 verse, though not of much merit, has the reputation of being the best 

 Latin poetry known to have been produced in England in that age. 

 William of Malmesbury, who calls Wolstan a cantor of the church of 

 Winchester, says that he also composed an exceedingly useful work 

 on the Harmony of Tones ; but that is no longer extant. Bale says 

 he wrote a Life of King Ethelwulf, which is probably a mistake. 



2. WULFSTAN, who was not a monk, became archbishop of York in 

 1003, holding along with that dignity the bishopric of Worcester, as 

 had also been done by his two immediate predecessors, and died in 

 1023. There is extant in manuscript a letter addressed by him in 

 Anglo-Saxon to the people of his province ; and he is supposed by 

 Wanley, on probable grounds, to be the Lupus Episcopus to whom are 

 attributed certain sermons or homilies of this age written in the same 

 language. The most remarkable of these is printed, with a Latin 

 translation and notes by William Elstob, in the ' Dissertatio Episto- 

 laris ' contained in the third volume of Hickes's ' Thesaurus,' folio, 

 1705, pp. 99-106; and there is also a separate edition of the same 

 matter, published, in folio, at Oxford, in 1701. There are two pastoral 

 letters in Anglo-Saxon written in the name of Wulfstau, by one (which 

 one is matter of dispute) of the two Alfrics, with both of whom he 

 appears to have been well acquainted : they are stated to have been 

 first composed in Latin, and then, at Wulfstan's desire, to have been 

 translated into Saxon, that they might be more generally useful. 



3. WULSTAN, bishop of Worcester, is stated by his biographer, 

 William of Malmesbury, to have been born at Iceutun in Warwick- 

 shire, to a fair estate ; the name of his father was Ethelstan, that of 

 his mother Wulfgiva. From the age he is stated to have attained at 

 his death, his birth must have happened in 1007 or 1008. He began 

 his education in the monastic school of Evesham, but was afterwards 

 removed to the more distinguished seminary of Peterborough. Having 

 at the usual age been ordained a presbyter, he soon after became a 

 monk at Worcester, and gradually rose to be at last prior of the 

 monastery there. In 1062 he became bishop of Worcester on the 

 nomination of Aldred, who, having been two years before removed 

 from that see to the archbishopric of York, had attempted at first, as 

 had for some time been customary, to retain both appointments, but 

 was at last obliged to relinquish Worcester in consideration of only 

 being permitted to name his successor. He chose Wulstan, it is said, 

 conceiving that his mild temper and simple character would prevent 

 him from offering any resistance to his patron's appropriation of the 

 estates and aggressions upon the rights of the see. But this turned 

 out to be a great mistake. Wulstan proved a very dragon of a bishop, 

 and, especially after the coming over of the Norman conqueror, to 

 whom he very politically paid court, aud who took a great fancy to 

 him, he not only set Aldred at complete defiance, but even compelled 

 his successor, Archbishop Thomas, to make restitution to the see of 

 Worcester of sundry lands or pecuniary dues of which it had been 

 despoiled by his predecessors the prelates of York. He also success- 

 fully resisted the claim of the archbishop of York to a jurisdiction 

 over the diocese of Worcester, and got that bishopric declared by the 

 king to be in the province of Canterbury. Wulstan continued iu the 



