In return to this communication, Flamsteed received a most complimentary letter from Mr. Oldenburg, the Secretary, which thus commences,' Although you did what you could to hide your name from us, yet your ingenious and useful labours for the advancement of astronomy did soon discover you to us, upon our solicitous inquiries after their worthy author,' &c., urging him with an assurance that he can do the Society no greater kindness than to continue his industrious studies from year to year. From this period he carried on a scientific correspondence with Mr. Oldenburg, Mr. Collins, and other learned men of that day :

'From this time,' he says, I began to have accounts sent me of all the mathematical books that were published either at home or abroad. In June, 1670, my father, taking notice of my correspondence with them and some other ingenious men whom I had never seen, would needs have me take a journey up to London, that I might be personally acquainted with them: that being the time of the year when his affairs would allow me liberty. I embraced the offer gladly, and there became first acquainted with Sir Jonas Moore [His Majesty's Surveyor of the Ordnance], who presented me with Mr. Townley's micrometer, and undertook to furnish me with telescope glasses at moderate rates. I left monies in Mr. Collins's hands to pay for them: and in my return visited Dr. Barrow, and Mr. Newton, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge; and Dr. Wroe, then a fellow of Jesus College there, with whom I corresponded frequently the four following years. Entered myself at Cambridge in Jesus College.'Pp. 28, 29.

We stop for a moment at this auspicious period of our autobiographer's career, to advert to a circumstance noticed by Mr. Baily, which, had it been true, and not, as it is, most palpably false, must have arrested for ever the progress of this remarkable man. The story is briefly this. He stands accused by Mr. William Hutton, in his History of Derby, published in 1791, of having some time previous to the period of his life we have now arrived at, (say from sixteen to twenty years of age,) committed a highway robbery, for which, the writer continues, he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hanged! Mr. Hutton's words are:

John Flamsteed, the great mathematician, was a native of Derby. He was born in 1646, and continued in Derby till 1670. The first rudiments of his extensive learning he acquired at the free-school in St. Peter's churchyard. Amongst the early follies of his youth he was accused, with some degenerate companions, as being concerned in a highway robbery, for which he was tried and condemned. Circumstances and friends appearing in his favour, the Royal pardon was procured from Charles II. This piece of discredit was not generally known in after life. The bent of his own mind being then pursued, he became one of the greatest ornaments of man. He discovered new worlds

worlds in the heavens, which he communicated to posterity. Instead of pursuing unjustly the things of this world, he followed with applause those of others. He died in 1719, at the age of seventythree, leaving a most amiable character. Among his papers the pardon was found. John Webb, who was an intimate acquaintance of his, and afterwards of mine, gave me the anecdote.'

Mr. Baily went down to Derby to see whether the books at the free-school would throw any light on this subject; but there were no books of so early a date in existence; nor had any such circumstance ever been heard of at Derby. There, however, Flamsteed was born and bred-there his name has always been remembered with pride and interest-and there, if ever such a rumour even had existed, it must undoubtedly have left its traces. We cannot express our disgust at the rashness of Hutton in publishing such a story of such a man, after such a lapse of time, in the absence of any testimony whatever except what seems to have been the jesting gossip of a drivelling octogenarian to himself when a stocking-weaver's apprentice of nineteen'! Mr. Baily examined most minutely all the papers, both public and private, from which the account of Flamsteed's life and labours has been compiled, but no allusion to any such story is found in his or his friends' correspondence, nor does the name of Webb appear anywhere. 'There remained,' says Mr. Baily, one source of information to which I could appeal with confidence.' If any such pardon was granted, it must have been by Charles II., and would be found among the public records in the State Paper Office. The late excellent Mr. Lemon instantly undertook to go through a strict search himself. The result was such as might be anticipated, and such as must give complete satisfaction to all. 'I have' (says Mr. Lemon) myself made a careful search through the whole of our warrant-books, petitions, references, reports, and domestic correspondence, from 1660 to 1670 inclusive, and can state in the most explicit manner that there is no trace of any grant of pardon to the celebrated John Flamsteed to be found in them; nor do I believe that any such ever existed if it had, it must have been entered among our warrants or petitions, the series of which, at that period, in my custody, is particularly perfect.' This calumny and its refutation ought to afford a lesson to all 'anecdote' hunters: the idea of attributing a highway robbery to a laborious young student of respectable station, and afflicted with such grievous bodily infirmities-appears to us indeed quite unaccountable. Mr. Baily, in closing the subject, observes, that contemporary with our great astronomer there was a very small one, a cousin of his, bearing the same name and surname-but if even this obscure John Flamsteed had ever been pardoned for a robbery, Mr. Lemon's search is sufficient evidence that the cir

cumstance

cumstance must have occurred later than 1670!—that is, after the first Astronomer Royal was a man of twenty-four, and well known in the world.

About the time of Flamsteed's first visit to London (1670), Mr. Newton was engaged in experiments on light and colours, and the improvement of telescopes. I could not at first' (says Flamsteed) yield to his theory; but, upon trial, found all the experiments succeeded as he related them; which kept me silent and in suspense, for I never could think that whiteness was a compound of all the different sorts of rays of light mixed.' This conviction induced him to turn his attention to the subject of Dioptrics, which he was soon master of. His time was now fully occuped in making observations of the planets, the moon and the stars, the sun's horizontal parallax, &c., with a variety of astronomical calculations, which were mostly inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, to which he became a constant contributor. About this time also he says, 'I wrote a small tract in English concerning the true diameters of all the planets, and their visible, when at the nearest distance from our earth, or their greatest remove from it; which I sent to Mr. Newton in the year 1685, who has made use of it in the fourth book of his Principia.'

Flamsteed's character as an able astronomer was by 1673 fully established. He now corresponded regularly with all the scientific men of the day, at home and on the continent; but the friend to whom he mainly owed his future advancement in life was Sir Jonas Moore, the Surveyor of the Ordnance. In one of his letters to Flamsteed, dated March, 1674, this gentleman says,

I am resolved, God willing, further to assist you with either books or instruments, as you will please to call for them. I am ashamed such hopes as we might have from you should be discouraged by your charges and pains: so little encouragement is there for poor astronomy. Therefore, to lessen your labour, I have proposed you will choose such a person as may be capable to do it, to be attendant upon you and commanded by you; and to make observations, and to write and compute as you direct. And to such I will, during my life, bind myself to pay 107. a year, and I question not to get 10l. per annum

more.'

Well might Sir Jonas say, 'Poor astronomy! This liberal patron, in frequent letters, urged Flamsteed to come to London, and be his guest: 'I have a quiet house, a room fitted for you, and another for your servant.' On his arrival (1674), Sir Jonas prevailed on him to make a table of the moon's southing, and to deduce from it the times of the turn of the tides; telling him how acceptable a true account of the tides would be to His Majesty King Charles II.' He further urged him to compose a small ephemeris for His Majesty's use; and, at his request, he made a thermometer and

barometer

barometer for the king and the Duke of York. Whenever' (says Flamsteed) he acquainted them with anything he had gathered from my discourse, he told them freely it was mine; and procured me more than ordinary regards from them, and others of our nobility and gentry about the court, that was very useful to me, both during his life and after his decease.'

Sir Jonas Moore's friendship did not stop here. It appears that about this time he proposed to fit up, at his own private expense, a house belonging to the Royal Society, at Chelsea, as an observatory, and to appoint Flamsteed to the care of it. Το forward this object, he again invited him to come to town, and to take up his abode with him at the Tower, where,' he says, 'you will be extremely welcome to all of us, and where you may look after such instruments as are needful for observation.' Accordingly, in February, 1675, Flamsteed again arrived in London, where he was most kindly and cordially received by Sir Jonas; and in the following month an event occurred which fixed his destiny for the remainder of his life. We cannot do better than give his own account of it in his own words.

Betwixt my coming up to London, and Easter, an accident happened that hastened, if it did not occasion, the building of the observatory. A Frenchman, that called himself Le Sieur de St. Pierre, having some small skill in astronomy, and made an interest with a French lady* then in favour at court, proposed no less than the discovery of the longitude: and had procured a kind of commission from the king to the Lord Brouncker, Dr. Ward (Bishop of Salisbury), Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Charles Scarborough, Sir Jonas Moore, Colonel Titus, Dr. Pell, Sir Robert Murray, Mr. Hook, and some other ingenious gentlemen about the town and court, to receive his proposals; with power to elect, and to receive into their number, any other skilful persons; and, having heard them, to give the king an account of them, with their opinion whether or no they were practicable, and would show what he pretended. Sir Jonas Moore carried me with him to one of their meetings, where I was chosen into their number; and, after the Frenchman's proposals were read, which were

1o. To have the year and day of the observations:

2o. The height of two stars, and on which side of the meridian they appeared:

3°. The height of the moon's two limbs.

4°. The height of the pole :-All to degrees and minutes. It was easy to perceive, from these demands, that the Sieur understood not that the best lunar tables differed from the heavens; and that therefore his demands were not sufficient for determining the longitude of the place, where such observations were, or should be made, from that to which the lunar tables were fitted: which I repre

*Mademoiselle de Querouaille, afterwards Duchess of Portsmouth.

sented

sented immediately to the company. But they, considering the interests of his patroness at court, desired to have him furnished according to his demands. I undertook it; and having gained the moon's true place, by observations made at Derby, Feb. 23, 1672, and Nov. 12, 1673, gave him observations such as he demanded. The half-skilled man did not think they could have been given him; but cunningly answered they were feigned. I delivered them to Dr. Pell, Feb. 19, 1674-5, who returning me his answer some time after, I wrote a letter in English to the commissioners, and another in Latin to the Sieur, to assure him they were not feigned, and to show them that, if they had been, yet if we had astronomical tables that would give us the two places of the fixed stars and the moon's true places, both in longitude and latitude, nearer than to half a minute, we might hope to find the longitude of places by lunar observations, but not by such as he demanded. But, that we were so far from having the places of the fixed stars true, that the Tychonic catalogues often erred ten minutes or more: that they were uncertain to three or four minutes, by reason that Tycho assumed a faulty obliquity of the ecliptic, and had employed only plain sights in his observations: and that the best lunar tables. differ one quarter, if not one third, of a degree from the heavens: and lastly, that he might have learnt better methods than he proposed from his countryman Morinus, whom he had best consult before he made any more demands of this nature. I heard no more of the Frenchman after this; but was told that, my letters being shown King Charles, he startled at the assertion of the fixed stars' places being false in the catalogue; said, with some vehemence," He must have them anew observed, examined, and corrected, for the use of his seamen ;" and further (when it was urged to him how necessary it was to have a good stock of observations taken for correcting the motions of the moon and planets), with the same earnestness, "He must have it done." And when he was asked Who could, or who should do it? "The person (says he) that informs you of them."-pp. 37, 38.

This settled the matter at once. Sir Jonas Moore brought Flamsteed the king's warrant, appointing him his 'Astronomical Observator,' with a yearly salary of one hundred pounds, and instructions forthwith to apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rectifying the tables of the motions of the heavens, and the places of the fixed stars, so as to find out the so-much desired longitude of places, for the perfecting the art of navigation,' &c. The next thing to be done was to fix on a proper site for an observatory. Some proposed Hyde Park, others Chelsea College, but Sir Christopher Wren having mentioned Greenwich Hill, that site was resolved on. The king allowed 500l. in money, with bricks to be taken from Tilbury Fort, and some wood, iron, and lead from a gatehouse demolished in the Tower; and thus was the present Royal Observatory altered, repaired, and finished, as appears by the impress-warrant, for the moderate sum of 5201. 98. ld.;