Genre:

Reminiscences, Drollery

Subjects:

Psychology, Education, Astronomy, Observation, Exploration, Instruments

People mentioned:

Dugald Stewart , William Paley

    Anticipates the events of 1868. The author regrets that the next solar eclipse will not be visible from Britain, noting that 'If the assiduous watchmen on the hill at Greenwich [the Royal Observatory, Greenwich] [...] wish to see the total Eclipse of the Sun on August 18th, they must take their smoked glass to the Cape of Good Hope or Mauritius'. The forthcoming eclipse is therefore 'grudged to a country which has produced a Dollond and a Flamsteed'. He also notes that the next transit of Mercury across the sun's disk will occur in November 'after the Whitebait Season is over, or the Astronomer Royal would have been happy to see all the London stars [...] to dinner at the Observatory'.