38 ROBERT POCOCK 



" Wednesday, 4th. Saw the moon rise ; supposed 

 my neighbour's house on fire. 



" Thursday, 5th. Visited Lord Darnley's gardens at 

 Cobham. At nine at night, coming home from 

 Cobham, observed in the north-east a circular haze 

 which I supposed to be a comet. Thought of my 

 friend Mr. Ov.erton of Plum stead, and the great 

 telescope at Slough. Caught this day at noon a 

 brimstone butterfly. 



" Friday, 6th. I mentioned this morning to my wife 

 that I had certainly seen a comet last night. Heard 

 in the course of the day that a comet had been 

 announced in the newspaper. Saw the paper, where 

 a gentleman at Kelso had discovered it in August. 

 I found this evening the comet take another appear- 

 ance; it now had a tail in the direction of about an 

 angle of forty-five or fifty upwards, tending north-east. 

 Ran about the town to borrow a celestial map or 

 globe, but without success. Found the inhabitants 

 not attached to the sciences, and more of astrologers 

 than astronomers. 



" Sunday, 8th. Foggy morning, but the finest day 

 and starlight evening I ever beheld. The Milky 

 Way most conspicuous, and the comet brighter, with 

 longer rays. First saw it through a common spy- 

 glass, when it appeared like a hazy star of the first 

 magnitude. The field of the glass took in a star out 

 of its rays below it, and a star in the rays above it, 

 rather to the right hand. Observed, whilst looking, a 

 falling star or meteor descend into its tail. The 

 water on the oars appeared very luminous a prog- 

 nostication of a southerly wind. 



" Visited Lord Eardley's gardens at Erith, where 



