84 IIKRSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



letters from Sir Joseph Banks, Pivsi.lmt <>!' tin* Royal 

 Society. Herschel was rapidly outgrowing his sur- 

 roundings. The dullest eye could see that scum -thin^ 

 had to be done for the honour of the country. 

 Herscln-l. though resident in England, was not an 



simian: Init he was a subject of the K i 

 England as Elector of Hanover, and the nation that 

 reaped the honour, it might soon come to be tin- \ .milt, 

 nf 1 1 is discoveries, was Ixmnd to mark its sense oi tin 

 value it set upon his presence within its borders. Tin- 

 Royal Society did what they could, but it was far 

 from enough. As they honoured Benjamin Franklin 

 with the Copley Medal in 1753 for "curious exj n 

 mcnte and observations on electricity," so they showed 

 their high regard for William Hrrschcl by awarding 

 the same medal to him in November 1781 for his 

 " discovery of a new and singular star." On Decem- 

 ber 6 of that year he was also elected a Fellow of 

 the Society. But these honours did not meet the case. 

 They were prizes won in the race for fame ; they did 

 not provide a living or leisure for further triumphs. 

 But the King personally was bound to interp -. II 

 had a name throughout Europe for love of science, and 

 especially of astronomy, which no other monarch en- 

 joyed. A great French writer described him, long 

 before Herschel appeared above the horizon, as " \ ri 

 tablement amateur de la Physique et de 1'Astronomie." 

 For years he had supported an observatory and a K i og'i 

 Astronomer at Richmond. Parliament had provided 

 ample funds in the form of a Civil List, of which at that 

 time it got no account. But the funds were squan* 1 < i 1 

 or spent with such a lavish hand that enormous arrears 

 remained unpaid. Apparently the King wa^ h< If 



