H4 HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



for the Royal Astronomer. Chief among them was the 

 Maecenas of science in those days, Sir Joseph Banks, 

 the companion of Cook, and the President of the 

 Royal Society. Owing to his representations, the King 

 allowed his astronomer 2000 for the construction of 

 the telescope, and afterwards 2000 more to complete 

 it, with 200 a year for necessary repairs, painting, 

 ropes, etc., and men's wages, and 50 a year of pension 

 for Caroline. When Caroline Herschel records these 

 handsome allowances from the King, she expresses no 

 thankfulness, though her own personal expenses for 

 seven years previous had not amounted to more than 

 8 a year ! But she had cause to complain. " I 

 never felt satisfied," she writes in 1827, " with the 

 support your father received towards his under- 

 takings, and far less with the ungracious manner 

 in which it was granted. For the last sum came with 

 a message that more must never be asked for." One 

 of the requests was a small salary for her as assistant 

 to her brother. The sum granted was 50 a year. 

 For nine quarters it was left unpaid ! It is perhaps 

 matter of regret that she wrote as she did of the 

 shabbiness of the pension allowed to her brother. She 

 did the King a grave injustice. And she forgot, 

 besides, that while the King paid 4000 for the tele- 

 scope, 1 and allowed 200 a year for upkeep and wages, 

 the instrument remained her brother's private pro- 

 perty. William Herschel shows no trace of the 

 grumbling, cynical spirit of his sister. He knew 

 how handsomely he had been treated. At the same 

 time there is a most amusing raciness about her view 



1 Letter from Sir John Herschel, March 13, 1847 : Weld's History of 

 the Royal Society, ii. 193, 



