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which he got from his visits to Huddart were not lost ; and as soon as he 

 was able, he procured a 6-inch Gregorian with which he observed eclipses, 

 occultations, and looked at double stars. Observing soon became a pas- 

 sion ; and when, in 1816, his marriage with a lady who brought him a 

 considerable fortune made him no longer dependent on his professional 

 work, he resolved to devote himself to astronomy. He began by constructing 

 at his house in Blackman Street a magnificent observatory. After the death 

 of Huddart he purchased the equatoreal which had been his first inspirer ; a 

 fine transit instrument, which he described in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1826, was soon added ; and a circle was in progress. His zeal for 

 astronomy and his personal character won the regard of such men as Davy, 

 WoUaston, Kater, Babbage, Baily, the two Herschels, and, at a later period, 

 Faraday and Lord Rosse ; and his house was a centre of scientific reunion. 

 He took an active part in the formation of the Astronomical Society ; and, 

 in conjunction with Baily, exposed the defects of the * Nautical Almanac ' 

 so effectually, that after some years of discussion it was brought to its pre- 

 sent excellence in accordance with the recommendations of a committee, of 

 which he was the chairman. From 1821 (when he became a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society) till 1824 he worked with Sir John Herschel in form.ing the 

 Catalogue of 380 double stars which (with a description of the equatoreal) 

 appears in the Transactions for 1825. For this they obtained conjointly the 

 medal of the Institute, and till the publication of Struve's Dorpat Catalogue 

 it was quite unrivalled. During its progress it became too evident that the 

 smoky atmosphere of the Borough was ill suited for delicate observations ; 

 and he transported another equatoreal to Passy, near Paris, where he ex- 

 pected to find a purer sky. He resided there more than a year, enjoying 

 the society of those " men of renown," of whom the chiefs were Arago, 

 Humboldt, and, above all, Laplace, whose scepticism about the orbits of 

 double stars he had the pleasure of removing by showing him the angular 

 motion of 70 Ophiuchi, the components of which were then near their least 

 distance. The fruits of this sojourn appear in the Transactions for , 

 1826 as an additional catalogue of 458 double stars, for which, and his 

 paper "On the Sun's Right Ascension," he was awarded the Copley 

 medal of that year and the gold medal of the Astronomical Society. On 

 his return to England he purchased a property at Kensington, where he 

 was free from smoke, not foreseeing (though many people who ought to have 

 known better supposed him to be an Astrologer) that he should live to 

 see it in the heart of a dense population. There, of course, he built a 

 magnificent observatory, the finest private one probably that ever existed. 

 It was now increased by the purchase of Groombridge's meridian-circle, to 

 which he had eight additional microscopes applied by its maker, and by 

 a valuable clock, the gift of the King of Denmark. By this time the labours 

 of Guinand on optical glass had made it possible to construct object-glasses 

 of a size till then unattainable ; and he determined to procure one of the 

 highest power, and pursue with his whole energy the career on which he 



