Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/220

 192 HISTORY OF THE [1870-80 200 had been received from the trustees of the estate of Mr. T. C. Janson, formerly a Fellow of the Society, who died in 1863. This legacy, which became payable on the death of his widow, had, in conformity with the wishes of the testator, been added to the Lee Fund for the relief of widows and orphans of deceased Fellows.* It was also announced that the Society had received after the death of Miss Anne Sheepshanks, an Honorary Member, who died in 1876, a gift of 192 volumes which had formed a portion of the library of her brother, the Rev. Richard Sheepshanks. Her chief claim to the gratitude of astronomers is, however, founded on her pecuniary beneficence to science, for it was at her expense that the exhibition at Cambridge bearing the name of Sheepshanks was founded, and that the meridian circle now in use at the Cam- bridge Observatory was provided. On the death of her brother, as a record of her admiration and affection for him and his work, she transferred 10,000 Consols to the Master, Fellows, and Scholars of Trinity College, Cambridge, the interest of which was to be devoted to the advancement of astronomical and kindred sciences in the University. One-sixth of the sum supplies the income of the Sheepshanks Exhibition, the remaining five-sixths is reserved for purposes connected with the Cambridge Observatory, either in payment of stipends or in purchase of instruments. In 1860 a further sum of 2000 was placed by Miss Sheepshanks in the hands of Mr. Airy, for providing a new transit-circle for Cambridge Observatory, and the instrument made by the firm of Troughton & Simms was mounted in 1870. During the year 1876 the Society came into possession of several series of original sun-spot records in various ways. First, the original drawings of spots and manuscript books of observations made by Carrington between the years 1853 and 1871 were presented to the Society by Lord Lindsay. They had been sold by public auction and were bid for on behalf of the Society, but were pur- chased by a bookseller, from whom Lord Lindsay bought them. Secondly, the Rev. Frederick Hewlett presented to the Society five volumes of sun-spot drawings made by him between 1869 and 1876 ; and thirdly, the widow of Professor Selwyn gave to the Society a series of paper prints from the solar negatives taken at Ely under the superintendence of the Professor in the years 1863-73. The gift of Carrington's MSS. led to the insertion in the Monthly Notices for 1876 March of a short list of the sun-spot manuscripts in the possession of the Society, under the will of Mr. C. Lambert, whose name appears in the list of deceased Fellows in 1878, but of whom no biography is given. He left a sum of money to be distributed among scientific societies, and of this the Royal Astronomical received the amount named.
 * A further sura of 500 came into the possession of the Society in 1877