APPENDIX
(Page 44)
In the short notice of his early life communicated by Herschel in 1783 to the editor of the Göttingen Magazine of Science and Literature, Herschel says little of that part of his residence in England which preceded his discovery by Dr. Watson in 1779. What he does say may be summed up in his own words:—
I remained "in the army, however, until I reached my nineteenth year [1757], when I resigned and went over to England. My familiarity with the organ, which I had carefully mastered previously, soon procured for me the position of organist in Yorkshire, which I finally exchanged for a similar situation at Bath in 1766, and while here the peculiar circumstances of my post, as agreeable as it was lucrative, made it possible for me to occupy myself once more with my studies, especially with mathematics."[1] "A similar situation at Bath in 1766" seems to refer to the Octagon Chapel, and is so stated in his sister's Memoirs, But there are serious objections to this account of his removal from Halifax to Bath.
In October 1822 there appeared in the New Monthly Magazine, of which Thomas Campbell, the poet, was then editor, an obituary notice of Herschel, which gave another and a fuller version of his removal to Bath. Unfortunately,
- ↑ Professor Holden, Life and Works of Sir William Herschel, p. 4.
