PRICES OF TELESCOPES 



105 



was a common price. To be an instrument-maker, 

 and to sell telescopes, was allowed him by the King ; 

 but his sister's judgment on these conditions of the 

 appointment is marked by her usual outspoken 

 candour. Unfortunately, she presented the business 

 in the least favourable light for the King, and her 

 sentiments have been unfairly echoed to his discredit. 1 

 Time so valuable as Herschel's was often absorbed 

 by idle visitors, who understood little of his work, 

 and made him no intellectual return. Sometimes a 

 visit was paid to Slough that came to be remembered 

 from its surroundings, but from nothing else. Of 

 these none was more tragic than that of " the Princesse 

 Lamballe, who came with a numerous attendance to 

 see the moon, etc. About a fortnight after, her head 

 was off. 3 ' 2 



another (Life of Newton, i. 57). In Lalande's Astronomy, vol. i. xlix- 

 lii, is a price-catalogue of astronomical instruments. Short's prices were 



12 -inch reflector, 14 guineas. 



18 20 



24 

 36 

 48 

 72 

 144 



35 



75 



100 



300 



800 



Only one telescope of 12 feet was made by Short. In presenting a 10- 

 feet reflector to the Society at Gottingen, George in. was following the 

 example of his grandfather, the founder of the University, who pre- 

 sented it in 1756 with a mural quadrant of 6-feet radius, made by 

 Bird (175), and other instruments. 



1 Sir David Brewster goes too far on the other side when he says, 

 ' ' None of the sovereigns who either preceded or followed him have 

 an equal claim on the homage of astronomers " (Life of Newton, i. 60). 

 This could not be said of the King at first. 



2 Memoirs, p. 332. This is assigned to 1787, when she was certainly in 

 England ; but the Princess perished in 1792. 



