Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/37

 [820-30] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 23 D this establishment. I make out that he was not a graduate of Oxford or Cambridge " (Mem. of A. De M., 372). In 1810 he " became the proprietor of a celebrated establishment at Temple Grove, East Sheen, where many of the nobility and gentry received their preparatory education. Here he built an Observatory and furnished it with instruments." In 1817 he was made rector of South Kilworth, Leicestershire, but he continued to reside at East Sheen until 1821, and was thus able to play his leading part in the foundation of our Society. He removed in 1821 to South Kilworth for the rest of his life, and erected there a considerable Observatory, employing a permanent assistant. In 1824 and 1829 he published the two volumes of his Treatise on Practical Astronomy, a monumental work of which he ultimately presented the unbound sheets to the Society. Since so little is known about our Founder, whatever more can be gathered is of value. From two directions sidelights have recently been thrown on his doings. The first is from the Reports of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, already mentioned (see p. 18) among those founded about the same time as our own Society, and specially distinguished by the part it played in the foundation of the British Association at York in 1831. Dr. Pearson was one of those who attended this first meeting (of the B. A.), and he took occasion to present to the Yorkshire Philoso- phical Society his Treatise on Practical Astronomy. The Society thereupon elected him as Honorary Member. He replied by offering to present some valuable astronomical instruments (later he specified a clock, a telescope, and a transit instrument) if the Society would build an Observatory to house them. We may give verbatim an extract from the Reports for 1832, 1833, and 1857 : Dr. Pearson has given fifty copies of his Tables for the Reduction of Astronomical Observations. This munificent patron of Astronomy will contemplate with satisfaction the Observatory which is now rising to receive his instruments and employ his useful tables. The Committee appointed for this object have been scrupulously attentive to the main point of a solid foundation and an immovable basis for the instruments ; they have made provision for a large transit and a circular instrument, and by placing the revolving telescope on a separate foundation, believe that they shall at once secure accurate observations for time and position, and allow, on suitable occasions, more popular views of the heavenly phenomena. 1833. The Observatory has been put into active operation and the labours of the Committee for Science have been assiduous and productive. 1857. Important improvements have been made in the Observa- tory. The object glass of the telescope (4 in. in aperture) presented by the Rev. Dr. Pearson, for which the Observatory was built,