HAP. in.] Extracts from Day-book. 99 



forward, and not having immediate access to each book or 

 paper at the moment when wanted. 



January 4th. Spent the evening at my brother's. Sir 

 Win. Watson * and Mr. Wilson t were there. 



February 11th. My brother went to Bath to make some 

 stay there, having taken a house on Sion Hill. 



February 2Gth. Mrs. Herschel, Miss Cobet, and the 

 servants left Slough for Bath. Russell, the horse-keeper, 

 and his wife, were, along with me, left in charge of the 

 house, from which I seldom was absent at any other time 

 but to go to dinner at my lodging every day at one o'clock. 



March 29/i. The Prince of Orange stepped in to ask 

 some questions about planets, c. I 



Lord Kirkwall and a gentleman came to see the instruments. 



April 1st. My brother arrived at Slough, and on the 

 llth he took a paper to the R. S., which he brought with 

 him for me to copy in the clear. The fine nights were 

 spent with sweeping. 



* Sir William "Watson, M.D., Knight, F.R.S. from 1770 to 1800, when he 

 resigned. He was one of the first members of the Astronomical Society at its 

 foundation in 1821 under the Presidency of William Herschel. His father, 

 also M.D. and Knight, was the eminent botanist and naturalist. He lived 

 much at Dawlish, where the Herschel family frequently went to stay with 

 him. 



t Alexander Wilson, M.D., professor of practical astronomy in the Uni- 

 versity of Glasgow, and first propounder of that theory as to the cause and 

 nature of the spots on the sun, which was afterwards fully corroborated and 

 worked out by Sir W. Herschel. 



J The Prince's questions were sometimes of a very remarkable kind. On 

 a previous occasion when he " stept in " with a view to having them answered, 

 and was not so fortunate as to find anyone at home, he left the following 

 memorandum: "The Prince of Orange has been at Slough to call at Mr. 

 Herschel's and to ask him, or if he was not at home to Miss Herschel, if it is 

 true that Mr. Herschel has discovered a new star, whose light was not as that 

 of the ommon stars, but with swallow tails, as stars in embroidery. He has 

 seen this reported in the newspapers, and wishes to know if there is any 

 foundation to that report. Slough, the 8th of August, 1798. W. Prince of 

 Orange." 



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