'
"I must say a few words of apology for the good King (George
III.), and ascribe the close bargains which were made between
him and my brother to the _shabby, mean-spirited advisers_ who
were undoubtedly consulted on such occasions; but they are dead
and gone, and no more of them."
In February 1828, the great services which this high-souled woman had
rendered to astronomical science were fitly rewarded by the presentation
to her of the Royal Astronomical Society's gold medal,--the greatest
honour which an astronomer can receive.
Mr. South, himself an astronomer of deserved repute, was charged with
the duty of presenting the medal; and in the course of his address he
dwelt on the labours of her brother, and the share she had had in them.
Sir William's first catalogue of new nebulae and clusters of stars, he
said, amounting in number to one thousand, was compiled with
observations made from a twenty-foot reflector in the years 1783, 1784,
and 1785. By the same instrument he was enabled to discover the
positions of a second thousand of these distant worlds in 1785 to 1788;
while the places of five hundred others were registered on the celestial
map between 1788 and 1802.
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