Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/39

 1820-30] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 25 Report above) preparatory to Eton, where " he found about 200 youths of noble families and connections, lodged in a magnificent villa, that had once been the retreat of a Minister, superintended by a sycophantic doctor of divinity, already well beneficed and not despairing of a bishopric by favouring the children of the great nobles." As Disraeli was born in 1804, his schooldays would have been about Dr. Pearson's time ; but his biographies mention Blackheath and Walthamstow as his early schools. So that we feel sure that the above rather unpleasant portrait has nothing to do with our Founder, in spite of the following local allusion : " Mr. Rigby was so clever that he contrived always to quarter Coningsby on the father of one of his school-fellows, for Mr. Rigby knew all his school-fellows and all their fathers. Mr. Rigby also called to see him, not unfrequently would give him a dinner at the Star and Garter, or even have him up to town for a week to Whitehall." If the Star and Garter is to be taken literally it certainly points to East Sheen : but it may surely be a substitution for some other famous dining place such as The Ship at Greenwich. Disraeli was at school at Blackheath, and by an odd coincidence there was a school there also associated with the name of Spencer Perceval afterwards divided into two houses, Spencer House and Perceval House. In later years there was at Temple Grove a pupil whose name (disguised) is even better known than that of Disraeli. In Tracks of a Rolling Stone (1905) Mr. William Coke describes Temple Grove as he knew it in 1837. He gave his name to the Billy Coke or billycock hat, otherwise known from its maker, Mr. Bowler. Lord Selborne and Lord Grey were also at the school, the former as a contemporary of Admiral Purey-Cust. Another of our Fellows, Colonel A. C. Bigg-W 7 ither, was there in 1853-55. Certainly the works of Dr. Pearson, as we know them, do not savour of a " sycophantic doctor of divinity." His generosity seems to have been as great as his assiduity in labours, which many men would find distasteful. It is no light matter to produce a volume of astronomical tables. It is curious how this side of astronomy seems to have fascinated our pioneers : probably it was the link between Pearson and Baily. We find ample evidence in the history of the early years of the new Society that its prime motive was " precise measurement and systematic calculation." It might have been supposed that the more picturesque work of its first actual President, Sir William Herschel, would inspire the active members to follow him, at however respectful a distance, in examining nebulse, stellar clusters,