Charles Pritchard, D.D.; F.R.S. F.R.A.S. F.R.G.S., Late Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford. Memoirs of His Life (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VI LIFE AT OXFORD, 1882-1886 By his Daughter, Ada Pritchard In the year 1879 the Radcliffe Observatory was placed under my father's control during the interregnum caused by the death of its director, his friend, Mr Main. It was a pleasure to him to find time for the working of two observatories at once, and he went so far as to express the sentiment that ' we are never so happy as when we have a little too much to do, and do it.' I have many letters about this, but the following to Dr Acland seems best worth quoting :? ' Univ. Observatory, 'June oth, 1878. ' My Dear Dr Acland,?I well know the lively interest which you take in all that appertains to Oxford, and not the least to the astronomical branches of it. ' I have now been for a few weeks in temporary charge of the Radcliffe Observatory. It is a very noble establishment, and contains the elements of an institution which I am convinced might, without great difficulty, be one of the very first in Europe. There are, however, details and arrangements within it which I feel convinced are not fully within the cognisance of the trustees, but which seem to me to require their consideration, and this, I think,can only be given effectually before a successor to Mr Main is appointed.' In this spirit (of delight in ' too much work') he gave his aid to a project for the establishment of a series of 'City Lectures' in 1880, himself lecturing in the Town Hall on ' The Life and Discoveries of Sir William Herschel,' perhaps in the hope of arousing in the town that interest which he had found wanting in the University. ' The man himself, William Herschel,' he said, 'was a romance, and a very noble one, and so are his wonderful discoveries. But I must guard myself against misleading you into the thought that astr...