The metal tube of the instrument carrying at one end the recently cleaned mirror of four feet ten inches in diameter, has been placed horizontally in the meridian line, on solid piers of masonry, in the midst of the circle, where formerly stood the mechanism requisite for manoeuvring the telescope. The first of January 1840, Sir John Herschel, his wife, their children, seven in number, and some old family servants, assembled at Slough. Exactly at noon, the party walked several times in procession round the instrument; they then entered the tube of the telescope, seated themselves on benches that had been prepared for the purpose, and sung a requiem, with English words composed by Sir John Herschel himself. After their exit, the illustrious family ranged themselves around the great tube, the opening of which was then hermetically sealed. The day concluded with a party of intimate friends. I know not whether those persons who will only appreciate things from the peculiar point of view from which they have been accustomed to look, may think there was something strange in several of the details of the ceremony that I have just described. I affirm at least that the whole world will applaud the pious feeling which actuated Sir John Herschel; and that all the friends of science will thank him for having consecrated the humble garden where his father achieved such immortal labours, by a monument more expressive in its simplicity than pyramids or statues. FOOTNOTES: [15] When age and infirmities obliged Alexander Herschel to give up his profession as a musician, he quitted Bath, and returned to Hanover, very generously provided by Sir William with a comfortable independence for life. [16] Sir W. Herschel had married Mary, the widow of John Pitt, Esq., possessed of a considerable jointure, and the union proved a remarkable accession of domestic happiness. This lady survived Sir William by several years. They had but this son.--_Translator's Note_. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE MEMOIRS OF WILLIAM HERSCHEL.[17] 1780. _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. lxx.--Astronomical Observations on the Periodical Star in the Neck of the Whale.--Astronomical Observations relative to the Lunar Mountains. 1781. _Phil. Trans._, vol. lxxi.--Astronomical Observations on the Rotation of the Planets on their Axes, made with a View to decide whether the Daily Rotation of the Earth be always the same.--On the Comet of 1781, afterwards called the _Georgium Sidus_. 1782. _Phil. Trans._, vol. lxxii.--On the Parallax of the Fixed Stars.--Catalogue of Double Stars.--Description of a Lamp Micrometer, and the Method of using it.--Answers to the Doubts that might be raised to the high magnifying Powers used by Herschel.