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CHAPTER II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2011

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Summary

LIFE OF THE BROTHER AND SISTER IN BATH.

At the time when William Herschel brought his sister back with him to Bath, he had established himself there as a teacher of music, numbering among his pupils many ladies of rank. He was also organist of the Octagon Chapel, and frequently composed anthems, chants, and whole services for the choir under his management. On the retirement of Mr. Linley (father of the celebrated singer, afterwards the beautiful Mrs. Sheridan) from the direction of the Public Concerts, he at once added this to his other avocations, and was consequently immersed in business of the most laborious and harassing kind during the whole of the Bath season. But he considered all this professional work only as the means to an end; devotion to music produced income and a certain degree of leisure, and these were becoming every day more imperatively necessary. Every spare moment of the day, and many hours stolen from the night, had long been devoted to the studies which were compelling, him to become himself an observer of the heavens. Insufficient mechanical means roused his inventive genius; and, as all the world knows, the mirror for the mighty forty-foot telescope was the crowning result. To his pupils he was known as not a music-master alone. Some ladies had lessons in astronomy from him, and, at the invitation of his friend Dr. Watson, he became a member of a philosophical society then recently started in Bath, to which he for several years contributed a great number of papers on various scientific subjects.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010
First published in: 1876

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