HOWARD. 63 



total cost was 4000?., which was entirely defrayed by the liberality 

 of George the Third. 



^ After the award of the king's pension, Sir William Herschel fixed 

 his residence at Slough, near Windsor, his family consisting at first 

 of one of his brothers, and his sister, Miss Caroline Herschel, who 

 was his coadjutor and assistant in his computations and reductions, 

 and was also actively employed in astronomical observation, being 

 the discoverer of more than one comet. Herschel married a widow 

 lady, Mrs. Mary Pitt, and left one son, the present Sir John, whose 

 name has long been known to the public as one of the most active 

 and successful adherents of science that our day has produced. 



Dr. J. D. Forbes thus sums up the philosophical character of Sir 

 William Herschel: 



" He united, in a remarkable degree, the resolute industry which 

 distinguishes the Germans, with the ardour and constancy which 

 has been thought characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon. From his 

 native country he brought with him the boldness of speculation 

 which has long distinguished it, and it is probable that he had also 

 a vigorous and even poetical imagination. Yet he was ever im- 

 patient until he had brought his conjectures to the test of experi- 

 ment, and observation of the most uncompromising kind. He 

 delighted to give his data a numerical character, and where this 

 was (by their nature) impossible, he confirmed his descriptions by- 

 reiterated observation, in different states of weather, with different 

 telescopes, apertures, and magnifying powers ; and with praise- 

 worthy fidelity he enabled his readers to form their own judgment 

 of the ^ character of his results, by copious and literal transcripts 

 from his journals." 



^ Herschel died peacefully at Slough, at the advanced age of 

 eighty-three, on the 23rd of August, 1822, only one year after the 

 publication of his latest memoir in the * Transactions ' of the then 

 recently formed Astronomical Society, of which he was the first 

 president. Sixth Dissertation, by James David Forbes^ D.C.L., 

 F.R.S., (&c., Encyclopaedia Britt., eighth edition. English Cyclo- 

 paedia. London, 1856. Weld's Hist, of Roy. Society. 



EDWARD CHARLES HOWARD, F.R.S. 



Born May 28, 1774. Died September 28, 1816. 



Mr. Howard was born at Darnell, in the parish of Sheffield, and 

 was the third brother of the twelfth Duke of Norfolk. His name 

 has become intimately connected with the manufacture of sugar, 



