Page:Hector Macpherson - Herschel (1919).djvu/29

Rh George III—expected to make his acquaintance. On 8th May he left Bath to join his friend, Dr. Watson, at Lincoln's Inn Fields, taking with him his instruments, star-catalogues, maps, tables, etc. In a letter to his sister, dated 25th May, he stated that he had had an audience of the King, to whom he presented a drawing of the Solar System. On 2nd July Herschel noted in his diary: "I had the honour of showing the King and Queen and the Royal Family the planets Jupiter and Saturn, and other objects".

Herschel was now seriously considering the possibility of abandoning the profession of music and devoting himself to astronomy. There can be little doubt that after George III expressed interest in the discovery, Herschel indicated that he was anxious to be made "independent of music". The result of his interview with the King was his appointment as King's Astronomer. The appointment is referred to by Herschel himself in his journal in the following terms: "It was settled by His Majesty that I should give up my musical profession and, settling somewhere in the neighbourhood of Windsor, devote my time to astronomy". The salary attached to the new office was fixed at £200—certainly not a large sum. Indeed, when Herschel's intimate friend, Dr. Watson, was informed as to the exact amount, he exclaimed, "Never bought monarch honour so cheap". Writing to her nephew, Sir John Herschel, in April, 1827, Caroline attributed the "close bargains" made between George III and her brother to the "shabby, mean-spirited advisers" of the King. Undoubtedly Herschel made a pecuniary sacrifice in accepting the offer, but "the prospect of entering again on the toils of teaching, etc," his sister tells us, "which awaited my brother at home, appeared to him an intolerable waste of time". Doubtless Herschel believed it to be the best policy to close with the King's offer and thus be free to devote himself to the study which had become the