A VISIT TO GREENWICH OBSERVATORY. 113 



and other subjects concerned in the development of 

 astronomy. 



Permission to go through the Observatory had 

 been kindly granted by the Astronomer Royal, and 

 one of his assistants, E. W. Maunder, Esq., F.R.A.S., 

 accompanied the party, explaining the various in- 

 struments and their uses. Mr. Maunder interspersed 

 his talk with some interesting references to the 

 origin and history of the place. The Observatory 

 was founded in 1675 by Charles II., Flamsteed 

 being appointed " our astronomical observator," at 

 a munificent salary of 100 a year, out of which 

 he was to find his own instruments ! At that time 

 astronomy was to the bulk of the people very little 

 more than astrology, and to the rustics of Green- 

 wich Flamsteed was a kind of chief horoscopist. 

 It is related that an old woman went to him to 

 obtain help in finding a lost basket. The as- 

 tronomer gravely drew some circles on the ground., 

 and then pointed with his stick in a certain 

 direction. To his great surprise, the woman soon 

 came back to tell him he was right, and he found 

 himself famous ; but he determined to practise 

 astrology no more, even in jest. 



Flamsteed, having to provide his own apparatus, 

 naturally enough thought he had the right to all 

 the results of his researches ; but the Royal Society, 

 backed by Newton, claimed them as public property, 

 and even went so far as to seize by force all the 

 records that were treasured up in the Observatory. 

 This caused dissension between Newton and Flam- 

 steed, and it is not impossible that the papers of 



8 



