THE ROYAL SOCIETY 91 



Club gave him great satisfaction. Sir Joseph presided ; 

 and Dr. Maskelyne said grace. " To give liveliness to 

 the scene, the President announced the health of the 

 Prince of Wales ; this was his birthday. We then drank 

 to the Elector Palatine, who was that day to be admitted 

 a member of the Royal Society. The same compliment 

 was paid to us foreigners, of whom there were five present." 

 ..." Brandy, rum, and some other strong liquors, closed 

 this philosophical banquet, which terminated at half-past 

 seven, as there was to be a meeting of the Royal Society 

 at eight o'clock. ... I repaired to the Society along 

 with Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Cavendish, Dr. Maskelyne, 

 Mr. Aubert, and Sir H. Englefield. We were all pretty 

 much enlivened, but our gaiety was decorous." 



Three days afterwards, M. Faujas was entertained 

 at Banks's country house at Spring Grove (Isleworth). 

 He was charmed with the management of the gardens, 

 the state of their cultivation was admirable and interest- 

 ing. An elegant dinner and dessert, " at which there was 

 abundance of pine-apples," followed in the evening. 



The day after this excursion, our traveller was enter- 

 tained by William Herschel at his house near Windsor. 

 Here he saw the " ever-memorable " telescope with which 

 the eighth planet was discovered, and had the pleasure 

 of making celestial observations during two hours. Her- 

 schel told him that he had made more than one hundred 

 and forty mirrors with his own hands, before attaining 

 the degree of perfection which he had now reached. 

 Faujas was startled to find Miss Caroline Herschel assist- 

 ing her brother in recording observations ; " placed at the 

 upper end of his telescope, when the indefatigable astrono- 

 mer discovers in the most desert parts of the sky a nebula, 

 or a star of the least magnitude, invisible to the naked eye, 

 he informs his sister of it, by means of a string which 

 communicates with the room where she sits ; upon 

 the signal being given, the sister opens the window, 



