In the long days of the summer months many ten- and seven-foot mirrors were finished; there was nothing but grinding and polishing to be seen. For ten-foot several had been cast with ribbed backs by way of experiment to reduce the weight in large mirrors. In my leisure hours I ground seven-foot and plain mirrors from rough to fining down, and was indulged with polishing and the last finishing of a very beautiful mirror for Sir William Watson. An account of the discoveries made with the twenty-foot and the improvements of the mechanical parts of that instrument during the winter of 1785, is given with the Catalogue of the first 1000 new nebulæ. By which account it must plainly appear that the expenses of these improvements, and those which were yet to be made in the apparatus of the twenty-foot (which in fact proved to be a model of a larger instrument), could not be supplied out of a salary of £200 a year, especially as my brother’s finances had been too much reduced during the six months before he received his _first_ quarterly payment of _fifty pounds_ (which was Michaelmas, 1782). Travelling from Bath to London, Greenwich, Windsor, backwards and forwards, transporting the telescope, &c., breaking up his establishment at Bath and forming a new one near the Court, all this, even leaving such personal conveniences as he had for many years been used to, out of the question, could not be obtained for a trifle; a good large piece of ground was required for the use of the instruments, and a habitation in which he could receive and offer a bed to an astronomical friend, was necessary after a night’s observation. It seemed to be supposed that enough had been done when my brother was enabled to leave his profession that he might have time to make and sell telescopes. The King ordered four ten-foot himself, and many seven-foot besides had been bespoke, and much time had already been expended on polishing the mirrors for the same. But all this was only retarding the work of a thirty or forty-foot instrument, which it was my brother’s chief object to obtain as soon as possible; for he was then on the wrong side of forty-five, and felt how great an injustice he would be doing to himself and to the cause of Astronomy by giving up his time to making telescopes for other observers. Sir William Watson, who often in the lifetime of his father came to make some stay with us at Datchet, saw my brother’s difficulties, and expressed great dissatisfaction. On his return to Bath he met among the visitors there several belonging to the Court (among the rest Mde. Schwellenberg), to whom he gave his opinion concerning his friend and his situation very freely. In consequence of this my brother had soon after, through Sir J. Banks, the promise that £2000 would be granted for enabling him to make himself an instrument.