Page:Hector Macpherson - Herschel (1919).djvu/75

Rh vied with each other in enrolling his name among their members. On his return to England, he did not re-erect his telescopes; and his career as an observer was closed. During the latter part of his life he was regarded as the greatest English astronomer of his day, and on his death on 5th May, 1871, at his home at Collingwood in Kent, he was interred in Westminister Abbey, close to the grave of Newton.

Sir John Herschel was survived by three sons, of whom only the eldest, Sir William James Herschel (1832-1917), did not inherit the family taste for astronomy. The second son, Alexander Stewart Herschel (1836-1907), Professor at Durham College, devoted considerable attention to meteoric astronomy, while the younger son, Colonel John Herschel, in his earlier days undertook a spectroscopic examination of southern nebulæ. The names of a grand-daughter and of a great grandson of Sir William Herschel—Miss Francesca Herschel and Rev. J. C. W. Herschel—appear on the roll of Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society, to testify that the family is still distinguished by love of the oldest of the sciences.