12 CHA, ppl4-15
13 CHA, ppl9-20
14 CHA, pl4
15 WH Papers 1, pxiv
16 CHA, p24
17 CHA, p112
18 CHM, p24
19 CHA, p23
20 CHA, p21
21 CHA, p24
22 CHM, p7
23 CHM, p6
24 CHA, p41
25 CHA, p25
26 CHA, p30
27 CHA, p136
28 CHA, p26; CHM, plO
29 CHM, pl2
30 CHM, p11
31 WH Papers 1, pxix
32 Angus Armitage, Herschel, 1962, pl9
33 CHM, pll; also CHA, pl08
34 CHA, p110
35 CHA, p109
36 Armitage, pl9
37 CHA, p33
38 Helen Ashton, I Had a Sister, 1937, ppl53-61
39 CHA, p33
40 CHA, p34; Ashton, pl61
41 CHA, p37
42 CHM, p20
43 CHA, p37
44 CHA, pp29, 34
45 CHM, p17
46 WH Papers 1, pxvii
47 WH Archive, William and Jacob Mss Letters 1761-63
48 WH Archive Mss Letters March 1761; also WH Chronicle, p18
49 WH Archive Mss Letters May 1761; also WH Chronicle, p26
50 WH Archive Mss Letter October 1761; also WH Chronicle, p28
51 WH Chronicle, p24
52 WH Archive Mss Letter October 1761; also WH Chronicle, p28
53 WH Papers 1, pxc, letter to Nevil Maskelyne
54 Armitage, p21
55 Ibid., p22
56 Ibid., p20
57 CHA, p7
58 CHA, p113; CHM, p18
59 CHA, p36
60 Ian Woodward, ‘The Celebrated Quarrel between Thomas Linley and William Herschel’, pamphlet printed Bath (British Library catalogue L.409.c.585.1); also WH Chronicle, pp42-3
61 WH Papers 1, ppxx-xxi
62 Armitage, p22
63 Crowe, 1986, pp124-9
64 James Gleick, Isaac Newton, 2003
65 Derek Howse, Nevil Maskelyne, 1989, pp70–1
66 Howse, pp66-72
67 Michael Hoskin, The Herschel Partnership, p21
68 CHM, pp22-3
69 CHA, p24
70 CHM, p25
71 CHM, p27
72 CHM, p32
73 CHA, p53
74 CHA, p123
75 CHM, p33
76 CHA, p51; CHM, p35
77 WH Mss 6278 1/8/8, dated 1784. But the use of the diminutive ‘Lina’ first becomes evident in manuscripts dating from 1779
78 WH Mss 6290
79 CHA, p52; CHM, p35
80 CHA, p55
81 CHA, p52; CHM, pp36-7
82 CHM, pp37-8
83 CHA, p55
84 WH Papers 1, Introduction
85 WH Mss 6290
86 JB Correspondence 1; Hoskin, p46
87 I owe these acute observations to Dr Percy Harrison, Head of Science, Eton College
88 WH Mss, H W.2/1. 1f.i
89 WH Mss, ‘Herschel’s First Observation Journal’, Ms 6280
90 Michael Crowe, Extraterrestrial, 1994, pp42, 74-5. Herschel eventually increased it to 2,500 by 1820, and Edwin Hubble to 17,000 by the mid-twentieth century.
91 Armitage, p22
92 WH Mss 6290 7/8, dated January 1782; also WH Chronicle, p73
94 WH Mss 6278 1/8/5
95 CHA, p127
96 CHA, p128
97 CHA, p129
98 CHM, p40
99 WH Mss 6290
100 Michael Crowe, Theories of the Universe, 1994
101 James Ferguson, Astronomy Explained, 1756, p5; and discussed by Michael Crowe, Extraterrestrial, 1986, p60
102 Crowe, Extraterrestrial, p170; also Crowe, Theories of the Universe, 1994, p73
103 CHM, p42
104 CHA, p61
105 CHA, p61
106 WH Papers vol 1, plxxxvii
107 WH Mss W.3/1.4, drafted 1778-79; discussed Crowe, 1986, pp64-5
108 WH Mss 6280, Observation Journal, 28 May 1776; and Crowe, 1986, p63
109 WH Mss W.3/1.4, drafted 1778-79, from Crowe, 1986, p65
110 CHA, p61
111 WH Mss 6280, First Observation Book
112 CHA, p61
113 WH Mss 6280, First Observation Book
114 Ibid., pp31ff, 170ff
115 CHA, p62
116 Simon Schaffer, Journal of the History of Astronomy, vol 12, 1981
117 Howse, p147
118 Schaffer, ‘Uranus and Herschel’s Astronomy’, Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol 12, 1981, p12
119 WH Papers 1, p36
120 WH Mss 6279; also WH Chronicle, p79
121 WH Mss 6279; WH Chronicle, p81
122 WH Papers 1; WH Chronicle, pp81-2
123 Howse, pp147-8
124 See WH Chronicle, pp78-80
125 WH Chronicle, p86, from Schaffer, Journal of the History of Astronomy, vol 12, 1981, ‘Uranus and Herschel’s Astronomy’, p14
126 Watson, letter to Herschel 25 May 1781, in WH Chronicle, p85
127 Howse, Maskelyne, p149
128 WH Chronicle, p95
129 ‘A Letter to Sir Joseph Banks Bart. PRS’, 1783, in WH Papers 1, pp100-1
130 WH Mss 6278 1/7, letter 19 November 1781; also JB Correspondence 1, p292
131 JH Mss 6278 1/1/57
132 JH Mss 6278 1/1/63
133 Account of My Life to Dr Hutton’, 1809, from WH Chronicle, p79
134 WH Chronicle, p95
135 John Bonnycastle, Introduction to Astronomy in Letters to a Pupil, 1786 (expanded edition 1811), pp354-7
136 Ibid., p241
137 Immanuel Kant, Universal Natural History and the Theory of the Heavens, 1755 (translation 1969, British Library catalogue 9350.d.649), Part I, p67. Kant also wrote: ‘There is here no end but an abyss of real immensity, in the presence of which all the capability of human conception sinks exhausted, although it is supported by the aid of the science of mathematics.’ Part I, p65
138 Erasmus Darwin, The Botanic Garden, 1791, Canto 1, lines 100-14, and Note to line 105; see also Canto 2, lines 14-82, and Canto 4, line 34
139 WH Chronicle, p102
140 JB Correspondence 1, p299
141 WH Chronicle, p101
142 JB Correspondence 1, p307
143 WH Chronicle, pp103–4
144 CHM, p45
145 CHM, p46; Howse, p148
146 WH Chronicle, pp115-16
147 Peter Sime, William Herschel, 1890, pp259-61
148 WH Chronicle, p116
149 WH Mss 6278 1/8/6, 20 May 1782
150 CHA, pp66-7
151 CHM, pp48-9
152 Holmes, Coleridge: Early Visions, 1994, pp18-19
153 Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner, Part IV, lines 263-71
154 Andrew Motion, Keats, Faber, 1997, pp27, 39, 121
155 WH Papers 1, pxix
156 Herschel to Johann Bode at Berlin, 20 July 1785, WH Mss 6278/11, p134
157 WH Mss 5278 1/4
158 Lucien Bonaparte, Wikipedia
159 WH Papers 1, pxix
160 CHA, p82
161 Samuel Johnson, Collected Letters, edited by Bruce Redford, vol III, 25 March 1784, p144
162 CHM, pp50-5
163 Hoskin, pp74-5
164 WH Mss 6281, Observation Journal No. 5, 1782
165 WH Chronicle, p105
166 WH Mss 6268 3/11
167 Ibid.
168 CHM, p52
169 Ibid.
170 WH Archive
171 CHM, p52
172 WH Papers 1, pp261-2; and WH Chronicle, pp222-3
173 CHM, p52
174 CHA, p77
175 CHA, p76
176 CHA, p77
177 Ibid.
178 Ibid.; and CHM, p55
179 WH Chronicle, pp190-5: a risky claim perhaps
180 WH Papers 1, pp157-66
181 Ibid. Illustrated in Armitage and Crowe, 1996, excerpts
182 Michael J. Crowe, Modern Theories of the Universe from Herschel to Hubble, Chicago UP, 1994
183 WH Papers 1, p265
184 WH Papers 1, p223
185 WH Papers 1, p225, a phrase repeated at end of this paper, at p259. Other extraordinary descriptions of galaxies evolving like plants growing or humans ageing occur in ‘Catalogue of a Second Thousand of new Nebulae’, 1789, WH Papers 1, pp330 and 337-8. Also in ‘On Nebulae Stars, properly so called’, 1791, WH Papers 1, pp415ff. See discussion in Edwin Hubble, The Realm of the Nebulae, 1933; and Michael Crowe, Theories of the Universe, 1996
186 ‘On the Construction of the Heavens’, 1785, WH Papers 1, pp247-8
187 Ibid., p27
188 Ibid., p25. See JA. Bennett, ‘The Telescopes of William Herschel’, Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol 7, 1976
189 Bonnycastle, pp341-2
190 WH Papers 1, p256
Chapter 3: Balloonists in Heaven
1 JB Correspondence 2, p299
2 Exchange of Banks-Franklin letters, 1783, Schiller Institute, ‘Life of Joseph Franklin’ (internet)
3 WH Letters, p62, to Franklin, 13 September 1783
4 Ibid.
5 L.T.C. Rolt, The Aeronauts, 1966, p29
6 ‘Dossier Montgolfier (1)’, Musée de l’Air, Le Bourget, Paris
7 Rolt, p30
8 Schiller Institute, ‘Life of Joseph Franklin’ (internet)
9 Auduin Dollfuss, Pilâtre de Rozier, Paris, 1993, p26
10 Ibid., pp17-22
11 Marquis d’Arlandes’s original account given in ibid., pp27–42; ‘la redingote verte, p41. Discussed in Rolt, pp46-9
12 Rolt, p50
13 Dr Robert Charles’s original account appears in Raymonde Fontaine, La Manche en Ballon, Paris, 1980
14 Dr Charles’s original account in ibid. (photocopy)
15 ‘Dossier Montgolfier (1)’, Musée de l’Air, Le Bourget, Paris
16 David Bourgeois, Recherches sur l’Art de Voler, Paris, 1784, pp1–3
17 Ibid., p3
18 J.E. Hodgson, History of Aeronautics in Great Britain, OUP, 1924, p103
19 Rolt, p31
20 WH Letters, p67, to Franklin, 9 December 1783
21 Ibid., p62, to Franklin, 13 September 1783
22 Ms Album of balloon accounts, British Library catalogue 1890.e.15. See also WH Correspondence 2, p304, Blagden to Banks, 16 September 1784; and Hodgson, p97, footnote
23 Hodgson, p66
24 Samuel Johnson to Hester Thrale, 22 September 1783, Collected Letters, vol 4, pp203-4
25 WH Mss 6280, Watson, letter 9 November 1783
26 Horace Walpole, letter to H. Mann, 2 December 1783; see Rolt, p159 and Hodgson, p190
27 Joseph Franklin, letters to Banks, 21 November 1783 and 16 January 1784; see Rolt, p158
28 Gilbert White, 19 October 1784, in Life and Letters of Gilbert White, vol 2, pp134-6. See also Richard Mabey, Gilbert White, pp195-6. The solo pilot was in fact the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard
29 Charles Burney, letter, September 1783. See Roger Lonsdale, Charles Burney, p385
30 Rolt, p60
31 Horace Walpole, June 1785, from Hodgson, p203
32 Rolt, p65
33 Sophia Banks Ms album, BL 1890.e.15. See also Hodgson, p97, footnote, and broadsheet poem ‘The Ballooniad’ (1784)
34 Portrait of Lunardi reproduced in Catalogue of Well-Known Balloon Prints and Drawings, Sotheby’s, 1962, p42. See also ‘Le triomphe de Lunardi’, a series of six allegorical paintings by Francesco Verini, c.1787, held at Musée de l’Air, Le Bourget
35 Account assembled from Vincent Lunardi, My First Aerial Voyage in London, 1784; see also Lunardi, Five Aerial Voyages in Scotland, 1785
36 Lesley Gardiner, Vincent Lunardi, 1963, pp53-60
37 Amanda Foreman, Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, HarperCollins, 1998, p173
38 Gardiner, p56
39 Charles Burney, letter 24 September 1784, in Lonsdale, 1965, p365
40 p59
41 Johnson, 13 September 1784, Collected Letters of Samuel Johnson, edited by Bruce Redford, vol 4, p404
42 Johnson, 18 September 1784, ibid., p407
43 Ibid., p408
44 Johnson, 29 September 1784, ibid., pp408-9
45 Johnson, 6 October 1784, ibid., p415
46 The glamorous threesome were celebrated in a famous coloured lithograph by John Francis Rigaud, Captain Vicenzo Lunardi, Assistant Biggin and Mrs Sage in a Balloon, now held in the Yale Center for British Art. In the event, only two actually took off.
47 Mrs Sage, A Letter by Mrs Sage, the First English Female Aerial Traveller, on Her Voyage in Lunardi’s Balloon, 1785. British Library catalogue 1417.g.24
48 Gardiner, p60
49 Ibid., p44. On p77 she also describes ascending through a snow cloud
50 Tiberius Cavallo, History and Practice of Aerostation, 1785
51 Gardiner
52 Kirkpatrick to William Windham, in Hodgson, pp147-8
53 Hodgson, pp143–4
54 Johnson, 17 November 1784, Letters, p438
55 Johnson’s gift is confirmed in James Sadler’s memoir, Balloon: Aerial Voyage of Sadler and Clay field, 1810. See also Hodgson, pp150, 403n
56 See Foreman and Hodgson
57 John Jeffries, Narrative of Two Aerial Voyages with M. Blanchard as Presented to the Royal Society, 1786. ‘The First Voyage’, pp10–11 (the ‘Second Voyage’ being the historic Channel Crossing). British Library catalogue 462.e.10 (8)
58 Jeffries, Two Aerial Voyages, pp55-65
59 Ibid.; but also drawn from a slightly racier account published exclusively for American readers as ‘The Diary of John Jeffries, Aeronaut: The First Aerial Voyage across the English Channel’, in The Magazine of American History, vol XIII, January 1885, and supplied to me as a pamphlet reprint (1955) by the Wayne County Library, USA
60 Photograph supplied by Musée de l’Air, Le Bourget, Paris
61 Jeffries, Diary, p16
62 Jeffries, Two Aerial Voyages, p69
63 Jeffries, Diary, p21
64 Erasmus Darwin, The Botanic Garden, 1791, Part I, Canto IV (Air), lines 143-76, footnote on Susan Dyer
65 Rolt, p91
66 Darwin, The Botanic Garden, Part I, Canto IV (Air), lines 143-76
67 Rolt, pp 99-104
68 James Sadler, An Authentic Account of the Aerial Voyage, 1810; see Hodgson, p150
69 Reproduced in Henry Beaufoy, ‘Journal Kept by HBHS during an Aerial Voyage with Sadler from Hackney’, British Library catalogue B.507 (1); see also Hodgson, fig 36
70 James Sadler, Across the Irish Channel, 1812, p16
71 Ibid., p23
72 See Holmes, Shelley: The Pursuit, 1974, p149
73 Windham Sadler, Aerostation, 1817. British Library catalogue RB.23.a.23973
74 Windham Sadler, ‘Progress of Science, while Ballooning neglected’, an Appendix to Aerostation, 1817, p16
75 Richard Hamblyn, The Invention of Clouds, 2000, which includes beautiful illustrations of Howard’s cloud paintings. Gavin Pretor-Pinney, The Cloudspotter’s Guide, 2006, suggests cloud study as both a science and an entire philosophy of life
76 Carl Grabo, A Newton Among Poets: Shelley’s Use of Science in Prometheus Unbound, North Carolina UP, 1931
77 Erasmus Darwin, ‘The Loves of the Plants’, 1789, from Part II of The Botanic Garden
78 Coleridge Notebooks I, entry for 26 November 1799; see Holmes, Coleridge: Early Visions, pp253-4
79 Wordsworth, Peter Bell, 1819, stanza 1, lines 5-6
80 Shelley at University College, Oxford in 1811, as recalled by T.J. Hogg in ‘Shelley at Oxford’, New Monthly Magazine, 1832; republished in his Life of P.B. Shelley, 1858
Chapter 4: Herschel Among the Stars
1 WH Mss W.1/5.1; and see ‘Description of a Forty-Foot Reflecting Telescope’, 1795, WH Papers 1, pp485-527 (with magnificent en
gravings of the telescope, the gantry, the moving mechanisms and the zone clocks and bells)
2 Michael Hoskin, The Herschel Partnership as Viewed by Caroline, Science History Publications, Cambridge, 2003, p79
3 J.A. Bennett, ‘The Telescopes of William Herschel’ (with illustrations), Journal for the History of Astronomy, 7, 1976
4 Hoskin, p79
5 WH Mss W.1/5.1; further details in Astronomical Observations’ (1814), WH Papers 2, p536, footnote
6 Hoskin, p81
7 Journal of Mrs Papendiek, in WH Chronicle, p174
8 WH Chronicle, p145
9 WH Chronicle, p152
10 Journal of Mrs Papendiek, in WH Chronicle, pp145-6
11 Ordinance Survey map, Royal Berkshire, 1830, reproduced in Hoskin, p58
12 CHA, p81
13 WH Chronicle, p172
14 John Adams, April-May 1756, Diaries and Autobiography, edited by L.H. Butterfield, 1964
15 CHA, p83
16 Ibid.
17 CHA, p86
18 CHA, p89
19 Sketch of ‘small’ sweeper in CHA, p70
20 Michael Hoskin, ‘Caroline Herschel’s Comet Sweepers’, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 12, 1981; and CHA, p70
21 WH Mss C1/1.1, 34-5; and CHA, p88
22 CHA, pp89-90
23 James Thomson, ‘Summer’, lines 1,724-8, from The Seasons, 1726-30
24 Claire Brock, The Comet Sweeper, Icon Books, Cambridge, pp150-1
25 WH Mss 6267 1/1/3, for 2 August 1786
26 WH Mss 6267 1/1.1. Memorandum made 2 August 1786
27 Hoskin, p85
28 CHM, p68
29 WH Papers 1, pp309-10
30 Howse, Maskelyne, p155
31 Hoskin, p83
32 Fanny Burney, Diary, September 1786, from WH Chronicle, pl69
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid., pp169-70
35 Ibid.
36 Sophie von La Roche, Diary, 14 September 1786, from Brock, pp154-5
37 WH Chronicle, p252
38 Nevil Maskelyne, 6 December 1793; see CHA, p70
39 Pierre Méchain, 28 August 1789; see WH Chronicle, p219
40 Hoskin, pp103-7
41 WH Chronicle, pl71
42 CHA, p91
43 CHM, p209
44 CHM, p309
45 Hoskin, p87
46 WH Mss 6278 1/5; and Hoskin, p88
47 CHM, p274; see Patricia Fara, Pandora’s Breeches, 2004
48 Hoskin, p88
49 Ibid., p90
50 CHM, p209
51 WH Mss 6280; and Hoskin, p89
52 CHM, p211
53 Hoskin, pp88-90
54 CHA, p94
55 Ibid.
56 CHM, p308
57 WH Chronicle, p172
58 OS map from Hoskin, p58
59 Journal of Mrs Papendiek, WH Chronicle, p174