“My father (like myself in youth and early manhood) was a great walker, and we frequently journeyed together. When I was only nine years of age I walked with him, for the most part after dark, from Birmingham to Stourbridge, a distance of twelve miles—with occasional lifts no doubt—according to usage—on his back. I recollect that it was a brilliant starlight night, and the names of the constellations, and of the brighter single stars, their apparent motions, and the distinction between the so-called fixed stars and planets, formed then, as on many similar occasions, never-failing subjects of interesting conversation, and to me of instruction. On the way we passed by the side of a small pool, and the air being still, the surface of the water gave a perfect reflection of the stars. I have a vivid recollection, after an interval of nearly seventy years, of the fear with which I looked into what appeared to me a vast abyss, and of my clinging to my father, to protect me from falling into it.” His father had a reflecting telescope that showed Jupiter’s moons and Saturn’s rings, a Hadley’s quadrant, an artificial horizon, and a tolerably good clock. He took in, moreover, the “Nautical Almanac.” “By means of this simple apparatus,” wrote his son, “he not only regulated the clock, but determined the latitude, and even the longitude of our house, or rather of the playground. In these occupations I was always his assistant.” No sooner had Rowland learnt anything than he set about teaching it. In fact, as he himself stated, learning and teaching with him generally went on hand in hand. He gave lectures on astronomy to the boys of the school, and later on to a Literary and Scientific Association, of which he was one of the founders. “With a view to these lectures, I read all the contributions of Sir William Herschel to the transactions of the Royal Society. My reverence for the man led me to contrive, on the occasion of my second visit to London, to go round by Slough, in order that I might obtain a glimpse—as the coach passed—of his great telescope, which I knew could be seen over the tops of the neighbouring buildings.” Astronomy was, indeed, as he always said, his favourite science. At an early date he became a member of the Royal Astronomical Society. He kept up his interest in its proceedings till the close of his life. When he had passed the age of threescore years and ten, he discovered some important errors in the Address of one of the Presidents.[29] All through life, whatever he read he read with an acuteness, a patience, and an earnest desire to arrive at the truth, that would have done honour to a judge.