and invited me to become a member of it, to which I readily consented." The house in front of which this discovery of an astronomer was made, was in River Street,[1] and the discoverer of Herschel was Dr. Watson, a distinguished Fellow of the Royal Society of London,[2] and a man of whom Herschel afterwards spoke in his printed papers with the highest respect and gratitude.
A look through a telescope in a street-observatory was not uncommon then even for a rising philosopher. As Humphry Davy "was passing through the streets one fine night, he observed a man showing the moon through a telescope. He stopped to look at the earth's satellite, and tendered a penny to the exhibitor. But the latter, on learning that his customer was no less a person than the great Davy, exclaimed with an important air, that 'he could not think of taking money from a brother-philosopher.'"
Dr. Watson and his father, Sir William Watson, were well-known members of the Royal Society. To the father in 1745 was awarded the Copley Medal for "surprising discoveries in electricity, exhibited in his late experiments." His portrait also is one of those in the Royal Society's keeping. The son became a Fellow in 1770. Like his father, he had a leaning towards the study of electricity. In 1756, when the Society honoured itself by electing Benjamin Franklin, "although not an inhabitant of this island," a Fellow, the certificate recommending that this be done was signed by the President and
