CHAP, ii.] Life in Bath. 41 



inventor of instruments of unheard-of power. He was 

 now about to be release'd from the necessity of devoting 

 the time to music which he was eager to give to astro- 

 nomical science.* It came about as follows : 



. . . . " He was now frequently interrupted by visitors 

 who were introduced by some of his resident scholars, 

 among whom I remember Sir Harry Engelfield, Dr. Blag- 

 den, and Dr. Maskelyne. With the latter lie was engaged in 

 a long conversation, which to me sounded like quarrelling, 

 and the first words my brother said after he was gone was : 

 * That is a devil of a fellow.' .... 



.... I suppose their names were not known, or were 

 forgotten ; for it was not till the year 1782 or 1783 that a 

 memorandum of the names of visitors was thought of .... 



.... My brother applied himself to perfect his mirrors, 

 erecting in his garden a stand for his twenty -foot telescope ; 

 many trials were necessary before the reqxiired motions for 

 such an unwieldy machine could be contrived. Many 

 attempts were made by way of experiment against a 

 mirror for an intended thirty-foot telescope could be com- 

 pleted, for which, between whiles (not interrupting the 

 observations with seven, ten, and twenty-foot, and writing 

 papers for both the Royal and Bath Philosophical Societies) 

 gauges, shapes, weight, &c., of the mirror were calculated, 

 and trials of the composition of the metal were made. In 

 short, I saw nothing else and heard nothing else talked of 

 but about these things when my brothers were together. 

 Alex was always very 'alert, assisting when anything new 

 was going forward, but he wanted perseverance, and never 

 liked to confine himself at home for man}" hours together. 

 And so it happened that my brother William was obliged to 



* He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, Dec. 6, 1781. 



