received the honour of knighthood from William IV., sailed from
Portsmouth for the Cape of Good Hope, taking with him his gigantic
instruments. After a voyage of two months, which was considered to
be a fair passage in those days, he landed in Table Bay, and having
duly reconnoitred various localities, he decided to place his
observatory at a place called Feldhausen, about six miles from Cape
Town, near the base of the Table Mountain. A commodious residence
was there available, and in it he settled with his family. A
temporary building was erected to contain the equatorial, but the
great twenty-foot telescope was accommodated with no more shelter
than is provided by the open canopy of heaven.

As in his earlier researches at home, the attention of the great
astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope was chiefly directed to the
measurement of the relative positions and distances apart of the
double stars, and to the close examination of the nebulae. In the
delineation of the form of these latter objects Herschel found ample
employment for his skilful pencil. Many of the drawings he has made
of the celestial wonders in the southern sky are admirable examples
of celestial portraiture.

The number of the nebulae and of those kindred objects, the star
clusters, which Herschel studied in the southern heavens, during four
years of delightful labour, amount in all to one thousand seven
hundred and seven. His notes on their appearance, and the
determinations of their positions, as well as his measurements of
double stars, and much other valuable astronomical research, were
published in a splendid volume, brought out at the cost of the Duke
of Northumberland. This is, indeed, a monumental work, full of
interesting and instructive reading for any one who has a taste for