APPENDIX 



(PAGE 44) 



IN the short notice of his early life communicated by 

 Herschel in 1783 to the editor of the Gb'ttingen Magazine of 

 Science and Literature, Herschel says little of that part of 

 his residence in England which preceded his discovery by 

 Dr. Watson in 1779. What he does say may be summed 

 up in his own words : 



I remained "in the army, however, until I reached my 

 nineteenth year [1757], when I resigned and went over to 

 England. My familiarity with the organ, which I had 

 carefully mastered previously, soon procured for me the 

 position of organist in Yorkshire, which I finally exchanged 

 for a similar situation at Bath in 1766, and while here the 

 peculiar circumstances of my post, as agreeable as it was 

 lucrative, made it possible for me to occupy myself once more 

 with my studies, especially with mathematics." 1 "A similar 

 situation at Bath in 1766" seems to refer to the Octagon 

 Chapel, and is so stated in his sister's Memoirs. But there 

 are serious objections to this account of his removal from 

 Halifax to Bath. 



In October 1822 there appeared in the New Monthly 

 Magazine, of which Thomas Campbell, the poet, was then 

 editor, an obituary notice of Herschel, which gave another 

 and a fuller version of his removal to Bath. Unfortunately, 

 1 Professor Holden, Life and Works of Sir William Herschel, p. 4. 

 17 



