I saw in the Quarterly review for December 1885 page 216 that the comet 1682 was discovered by a Peasent, George Palitzch residing in the neighbourhood of Dresden on the 25th of December 1758 with a small Telescope. But no mention is made of the Peasent at Inchbonny who first discovered the beautiful comet 1811. You will remember when Dr. Wollaston was at Inchbonny I put a difficult question to him that I could not solve about the focal distance of optic glasses when the Dr. got into a passion and said: Had he problems in his pocket ready to pull out in every occasion? and with an angry look at me said, You pretend to be the first that discovered the comet altho' it has been looked for by men of science for some time back. Now I never heard of such a thing and you will perhaps know something about it as the Dr. would not be mistaken. After we got acquainted, the Dr. was a warm friend of mine and I have often regretted that I had not improved the opportunity I had when he was here on many things he was master off. What ever others had known or expected I knew nothing about, But I know this, that on the 27th of August 1811 I first saw it in the NNW. part of the Heavens nigh the star marked 26 on the shoulder of the little Lion and continued tracing its path among the fixed stars untill it disappeared and it was generally admitted that I had discovered it four days before any other person in Britain. However Mr. Thomas Dick on the Diffusion of Knowledge page 101 and 102 has made the following observation 'The splendid comet which appeared in our hemisphere in 1811 was first discovered in this country by a sawer. The name of this Gentleman is Mr. Veitch and I believe he resides in the neighbourhood of Kelso who with a Reflecting telescope of his own construction and from his sawpit as an observatory, descried that celestial visitant before it had been noticed by any other astronomer in North Britain.' A strange story--a sawer and a gentleman; and what is stranger still Mr. Baily would not have any place but the sawpit for his observatory on the 15th May last. I am sorry to say with all the improvement and learning that we can boast of in the present day Halley's comet the predictions have not been fulfilled, either with respect to time or place. Thus on the 10 October, at 50 minutes past 5 in the evening the Right ascension of the comet was 163 deg. 37', with 63 deg. 38' of north declination but by the nautical almanac for the 10 October its right ascension ought to have been 225 deg. 2' 6, and its declination 29 deg. 33'. Hence the difference is no less than 61 deg. in Right ascension and 34 deg. in declination. When you have time, write me.