after years, was of common occurrence in the talks of father and son. Nothing is more likely, for other great names are known to have been discussed between them. Another astronomer, afterwards a friend of Herschel, made himself a name in the scientific world, Schroeter, of the Observatory at Lilienthal, in the Duchy of Bremen, about twenty miles from Hanover. Olbers and Harding, two of the astronomers who afterwards undertook to rival Herschel in the discovery of planets, belonged to the same neighbourhood. There was at that time something in the air of Hanover and its neighbourhood that turned the eyes of young men of genius to the stars. It is therefore not surprising that students of the sciences so eminent as Newton, Leibnitz, and Euler entered freely into the talks between the father and his two eldest boys. Jacob preferred sleep to talk. William never grew tired of talk on men and subjects so attractive. He was surrounded by living and famous astronomers. Their works and fame served, probably, to nurse in him the spark of science that his father thus lighted or cherished.
The prospect of war with France in 1755 gave Herschel an opportunity of visiting the country of his dreams, England. Discontent was rife in our large towns; incapacity was still more rife in the army and navy. It was the age of Admiral Byng, of Lord George Sackville, and of the Duke of Cumberland. The French king was known to be planning, and was likely to carry into effect, a descent on the English coast. In April it was supposed the storm would burst on Ireland, for that island was so defenceless that ten thousand troops might walk from one end of it to the other. In October it was reported that a
