Vlll 



at Cambridge in 1867. He was one of the Select Preachers at Cam- 

 bridge in 1869, and at Oxford in 1876 and 1877. 



Pritchard's occupations during his residence at Freshwater were 

 not by any means confined to clerical duty, as for some time before 

 and after he left Clapham he felt much personal interest in the affairs 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society, and in astronomical researches 

 generally. The first paper contributed by him to the Society, bear- 

 ing upon the practical part of astronomy, is contained in the ' Monthly 

 Notices ' for January 14, 1853, giving an account of some experi- 

 ments towards increasing facility and certainty in the use of mercury 

 in observations by reflexion, and for the adjustments of astronomical 

 instruments. In 1856 he became a member of the Council, and 

 shortly afterwards read a paper, the result of considerable calculation, 

 on "The Conjunctions of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in the years 

 B.C. 7, B.C. 66, and A.D. 54." This memoir was written to correct an 

 astronomical error in which Ideler and others had fallen, while 

 attempting to establish the date of the true Annus Domini. Astro- 

 nomy, indeed, was not neglected at Clapham, for an observatory, 

 furnished with an equatorial and a transit instrument, was actually 

 added to the other institutions of the school, and Pritchard built 

 another observatory for his private use at Freshwater. This long 

 personal interest in astronomical research as an amateur led to his 

 appointment, in 1862, to the responsible post of Honorary Secretary 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society, and, subsequently, to that of 

 President for two years, 1866 1868. His zeal for the interests of 

 this Society and the promotion of astronomy was so great that, though 

 resident in the Isle of Wight, he made it his duty to be present at 

 most of its meetings. It is a pleasing record of scientific devotion to 

 state that, during .his two years' tenure of the Presidency, he was 

 able to preside over the ordinary meetings fourteen out of a possible 

 sixteen times. His addresses delivered at the anniversary meetings 

 of the Society, on presenting the Gold Medal to the medallists of 

 1867 and 1868, are not only models of elegance of language, but they 

 are also masterly expositions of both the new and old astronomy, in 

 connexion with those sections of the science for which the Medals 

 were respectively awarded : that of 1867 to Huggins and Miller for 

 their joint researches in astronomical physics ; and that of 1868 to the 

 great French astronomer Le Verrier for his sublime mathematical 

 investigations on the planetary theories, and the construction of new 

 tables of the motions of Mercury, Yenus, the Earth, and Mars in their 

 orbits. 



By the death of Professor Donkin in November, 1869, the Savilian 

 Professorship of Astronomy at Oxford became vacant. Candidates 

 from all parts of the world were eligible, and the appointment of a 

 new Professor was at that time in the hands of thirteen trustees, in- 



