II THE following letter I received from the late Astronomer Royal, Sir G. B. Airy, when I was writing the Life of my uncle, Sir Rowland Hill. A few years ago, an American gentleman, to whom I was showing Oxford, spoke of Sir Rowland Hill as if he had not only reformed the postal system of the world, but had also, by way of Sabbath day rest, cracked a good many jokes in the pulpit. When I pointed out to him the strange confusion he was making, he replied, "Down in Illinois we always think the postal reformer and the great pulpit humorist one and the same man." The index-maker of the "Early Letters of Thomas Carlyle" has fallen into the same blunder. Carlyle, writing of the Rev. Edward Irving, says, "Unless he looks to it, he bids fair for becoming a kind of theological braggadocio, an enlarged edition of the Rev. Rowland Hill." In the index this passage is referred to under "Hill, Sir Rowland." Some of the passages in Sir G. B. Airy's letter are on a subject too deep both for my understanding and for the columns of a magazine. These I omit. Lord Macaulay's "astounding blunder " is to be found in his " History of England" (vol. v. p. 96 of the original edition), where he says, "In America the Spanish territories spread from the equator northward and southward through all the signs of the Zodiac far into the temperate zone. The "lady" was Mrs. Oliphant," whose admirable stories," wrote Sir Rowland Hill, "I never miss reading." She in "White-Ladies" represents “a new moon making her way upwards in the pale sky." ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH, DEAR SIR, I have spent a Sunday morning on the paper containing the Astronomical parts of Sir Rowland Hill's Biography. And I have been much interested in it. . . . I remember the 1811 Comet well. I am surprised that R. H. does not mention the 1807 Comet; I (then in my 7th year) saw it; my father tied a telescope into some pales to show it to me. Lord Macaulay's blunder is astounding. But you must pardon the lady. Until there is an Academy for Lunarian appearances, ladies, painters, and poets will claim the privilege "quidlibet audendi." Perhaps I may mention the following. A real astronomer had made a picture containing the moon, without any leading stars. On looking at it I said, "This drawing must have been made about the middle of August, between 3 and 4 in the morning." And this proved strictly true. My friend was much surprised at my relying on the accuracy of his lunar picture. I am, dear Sir, Faithfully yours, G. B. AIRY. The great comet of 1811 Harriet Martineau, "then," as she tells us, "nine years old, and with remarkably good eyes," could not see, apparently from a strange kind of nervous excitement. Night after night," she records, "the whole family of us went up to the long windows at the top of my father's warehouse; and the exclamations on all hands about the comet perfectly exasperated me, because I could not see it! 'Why, there it is!' 'It is as big as a saucer.' It is as big as a cheese-plate.' 'Nonsense; you might as well pretend not to see the moon.' Such were the mortifying comments on my grudging admission that I could not see the comet. And I never did see it." My Life of Sir Rowland Hill, with which was incorporated his History of Penny Postage, a posthumous publication, I dedicated to Mr. Gladstone, a statesman for whom he had always entertained a feeling of great respect and strong 1 Sir G. B Airy had first written "at my recognition of." affection. I received the following letter in acknowledgment: IO DOWNING STREET, WHITEhall, MY DEAR SIR,- Upon receiving your kind gift, which I highly value, I was sanguine enough to begin the perusal of the Life, in the hope of associating with my thanks some evidence that your work had not been unappreciated. I was very greatly interested in the account of the family. . . . But the urgent circumstances of the present winter have arrested my progress for the time.. Your Uncle was unhappy in the original association of his measure with a state of chronic deficiency for which he was in no way responsible; but on the other hand happy beyond almost all other great projectors in the rapidity with which his plans informed and spread throughout the world, under his eyes. G. B. HILL, Esq. I remain, my dear Sir, W. E. GLADSTONE. Matthew Arnold, as all who are acquainted with his prose writings know to their cost, was as strong on the unlawfulness of a widower's marriage with his deceased wife's sister as Dr. |