Annual Address to the Members. xliii 



more assistance ; the circumstances pressed too strongly against 

 him, and he was too honourable a man to accept the emoluments of 

 an office without the most punctilious discharge of its duties. In 

 his letter of resignation, addressed to the Secretary of the Admiralty, 

 he mentioned that not only the state of his health rendered him 

 unable much longer to support the requisite exertions, but that the 

 Observatory itself, considered as a place of residence, laboured under 

 so many disadvantages and required a mode of life so different to 

 what he had been accustomed, that he found it impracticable to 

 remain longer. His letter proceeds as follows : 



" Perhaps I may be pardoned for taking the liberty of recommending 

 to their Lordships' consideration the state of the Observatory, which 

 I am afraid would, in the opinion of every British subject who takes 

 an interest in science and regards the honour of his country, be 

 ■deemed not satisfactory." 



He adds a detailed memorandum pointing out the works necessary 

 in his opinion to render the Observatory a fit place of habitation, and 

 concludes as follows : 



" After all this, it is much to be feared that it is beyond the power 

 ■of Government to make the Observatory an agreeable place of resi- 

 dence. Its situation upon the verge of an extensive sandy desert, 

 ■exposed to the utmost violence of the gales which frequently blow, 

 without the least protection from trees or other objects to shelter 

 from the wind or sun, some miles distant from markets, shops, or 

 the habitations of persons with whom those belonging to the 

 Observatory can associate, the want of good water and the state of 

 the bulk of the population from whom servants must be taken and 

 other aid applied for, will always prove considerable drawbacks from 

 the comforts of persons sent from England to do the duties of the 

 Observatory, and great obstructions to the undisturbed cultivation of 

 the science." 



Eesignation was a very serious step for Henderson to take, for he 

 had- no private means beyond a pension of £100 a year, to which 

 he had become entitled on the abolition of an office which he held as 

 Advocate Clerk to Lord Eldin when the latter retired from the 

 Supreme Court of Edinburgh. 



Henderson. was rather the refined observer than the pioneer ; he 

 was a man who, granted the means and appliances, knew how to 

 turn them to the best effect and to attain to the highest precision of 



