FOOTNOTES:

(Decorative chapter ending)

CANDELABRUM. EXAMINATION HALL.CARVED OAK—GILT.

FOOTNOTES:[98]These stamp duties had been imposed on the English Universities by an English Act of Parliament (55 Geo. III., cap. 184), but were not exacted in Ireland. In 1842, when Sir Robert Peel imposed an Income Tax on England, from which Ireland was exempted, he assimilated the stamp duties in the two countries in order to make up for the relaxation of the Income Tax in the case of Ireland. A few years afterwards, when the Income Tax was extended to Ireland, the stamp duties were still exacted.[99]In the case of scholars not students in Divinity, two-thirds of these lectures sufficed for the term. At the present, Divinity students are obliged to attend every lecture in the term, except one, in each subject.[100]From a calculation made in 1880, there were at that time 2,322 names of holders of Divinity Testimoniums in the University Calendar for that year. Of these there were then serving as clergymen in Ireland, 841; in England, 638; in the Colonies, unaccounted for, and dead, 843. Of holders of Divinity Testimoniums from the disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1869 to 1880, 89 were clergymen in England, 121 in Ireland, and 30 were unaccounted for. Of those who obtained the Divinity Testimonium from 1866 to 1880, 170 were in England, 187 in Ireland serving as clergymen, and 67 unaccounted for.[101]James Macartney was a native of the County of Armagh. He pursued his studies partly in Dublin, but mostly in London. He was not a graduate of the University, nor does he appear to have ever been a student in Arts. He became in 1800 a member of the London College of Surgeons, and shortly afterwards commenced to lecture on Anatomy and Physiology in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. Macartney died March 6, 1843, aged 73 years. He left a sum of money to defray the cost of editing and publishing an account of his life and labours. This task was committed to the care of his nephew, at one time his Demonstrator, Hugh Carlile, or Carlisle, who died in 1860, as Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, at Queen’s College, Belfast, before he made any marked progress in this work. The executors then handed the material left partly sorted by Carlisle to Dr. E. Perceval Wright, but on the decease of the executors, while the work was in preparation, it was found that the money for the book was not forthcoming, and the wishes of Macartney have not yet been carried into effect.[102]See Dr. Stubbs’History of the University of Dublin, p. 257.[103]Ibid., p. 258.[104]He published his treatise on Analytic Geometry in 1819.[105]It may be well to remark that the University of Dublin was really in advance of Cambridge in encouraging new studies at the B.A. Degree Examination. In 1816 the examination for gold medals in Classics was established in Dublin; eight years afterwards Cambridge instituted the Classical Tripos. In 1834 the examination for Moderatorships in Ethics and Logics was founded in Dublin; seventeen years after that date the Moral Sciences Tripos was instituted at Cambridge. In 1833 Theological Examinations, as they are at present, were first established in Dublin; this example was followed by Cambridge in 1856. In the latter year the Provost and Senior Fellows founded a Moderatorship in Law and History. Cambridge did the same twelve years after. In one case the two Universities acted simultaneously, in founding in 1851 the Honour Degree Examination in the Natural Sciences.[106]William Whewell, by Isaac Todhunter, vol. i., page 8.

[98]These stamp duties had been imposed on the English Universities by an English Act of Parliament (55 Geo. III., cap. 184), but were not exacted in Ireland. In 1842, when Sir Robert Peel imposed an Income Tax on England, from which Ireland was exempted, he assimilated the stamp duties in the two countries in order to make up for the relaxation of the Income Tax in the case of Ireland. A few years afterwards, when the Income Tax was extended to Ireland, the stamp duties were still exacted.

[99]In the case of scholars not students in Divinity, two-thirds of these lectures sufficed for the term. At the present, Divinity students are obliged to attend every lecture in the term, except one, in each subject.

[100]From a calculation made in 1880, there were at that time 2,322 names of holders of Divinity Testimoniums in the University Calendar for that year. Of these there were then serving as clergymen in Ireland, 841; in England, 638; in the Colonies, unaccounted for, and dead, 843. Of holders of Divinity Testimoniums from the disestablishment of the Irish Church in 1869 to 1880, 89 were clergymen in England, 121 in Ireland, and 30 were unaccounted for. Of those who obtained the Divinity Testimonium from 1866 to 1880, 170 were in England, 187 in Ireland serving as clergymen, and 67 unaccounted for.

[101]James Macartney was a native of the County of Armagh. He pursued his studies partly in Dublin, but mostly in London. He was not a graduate of the University, nor does he appear to have ever been a student in Arts. He became in 1800 a member of the London College of Surgeons, and shortly afterwards commenced to lecture on Anatomy and Physiology in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. Macartney died March 6, 1843, aged 73 years. He left a sum of money to defray the cost of editing and publishing an account of his life and labours. This task was committed to the care of his nephew, at one time his Demonstrator, Hugh Carlile, or Carlisle, who died in 1860, as Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, at Queen’s College, Belfast, before he made any marked progress in this work. The executors then handed the material left partly sorted by Carlisle to Dr. E. Perceval Wright, but on the decease of the executors, while the work was in preparation, it was found that the money for the book was not forthcoming, and the wishes of Macartney have not yet been carried into effect.

[102]See Dr. Stubbs’History of the University of Dublin, p. 257.

[103]Ibid., p. 258.

[104]He published his treatise on Analytic Geometry in 1819.

[105]It may be well to remark that the University of Dublin was really in advance of Cambridge in encouraging new studies at the B.A. Degree Examination. In 1816 the examination for gold medals in Classics was established in Dublin; eight years afterwards Cambridge instituted the Classical Tripos. In 1834 the examination for Moderatorships in Ethics and Logics was founded in Dublin; seventeen years after that date the Moral Sciences Tripos was instituted at Cambridge. In 1833 Theological Examinations, as they are at present, were first established in Dublin; this example was followed by Cambridge in 1856. In the latter year the Provost and Senior Fellows founded a Moderatorship in Law and History. Cambridge did the same twelve years after. In one case the two Universities acted simultaneously, in founding in 1851 the Honour Degree Examination in the Natural Sciences.

[106]William Whewell, by Isaac Todhunter, vol. i., page 8.

(Decorative chapter heading)

Provost Baldwin held absolute sway in this University for forty-one years. His memory is well preserved here. The Bursar still dispenses the satisfactory revenues which Baldwin left to the College. None of us ever can forget the marble angels round the figure of the dying Provost on which we used to gaze during the pangs of the Examination Hall.

Baldwin died in 1758, and was succeeded by Francis Andrews, a Fellow of seventeen years’ standing. As to the scholastic acquirements of Andrews, all I can find is a statement that he was complimented by the polite Professors of Padua on the elegance and purity with which he discoursed to them in Latin. Andrews was also reputed to be a skilful lawyer. He was certainly a Privy Councillor and a prominent member of the Irish House of Commons, and his social qualities were excellent. Perhaps it was Baldwin’s example that stimulated a desire in Andrews to become a benefactor to his College. He accordingly bequeathed a sum of £3,000 and an annual income of £250 wherewith to build and endow an Astronomical Observatory in the University. The figures just stated ought to be qualified by the words of cautious Ussher (afterwards the first Professor of Astronomy), that “this money was to arise from an accumulation of a part of his property, to commence upon a particular contingency happening in his family.” The astronomical endowment was soon in jeopardy by litigation. Andrews thought he had provided for his relations by leaving to them certain leasehold interests connected with the Provost’s estate. The law courts, however, held that these interests were not at the disposal ofthe testator, and handed them over to Hely Hutchinson, the next Provost. The disappointed relations then petitioned the Irish Parliament to redress this grievance by transferring to them the monies designed by Andrews for the Observatory. It would not be right, they contended, that the kindly intentions of the late Provost towards his kindred should be frustrated for the sake of maintaining what they described as “a purely ornamental institution.” The authorities of the College protested against this claim. Counsel were heard, and a Committee of the House made a report declaring the situation of the relations to be a hard one. Accordingly, a compromise was made, and the dispute terminated.

The selection of a site for the new Astronomical Observatory was made by the Board of Trinity College. The beautiful neighbourhood of Dublin offered a choice of excellent localities. On the north side of the Liffey an Observatory could have been admirably placed, either on the remarkable promontory of Howth or on the elevation of which Dunsink is the summit. On the south side of Dublin there are several eminences that would have been suitable: the breezy heaths at Foxrock combine all necessary conditions; the obelisk hill at Killiney would have given one of the most picturesque sites for an Observatory in the world; while near Delgany two or three other good situations could be mentioned. But the Board of those pre-railway days was naturally guided by the question of proximity. Dunsink was accordingly chosen as the most suitable site within the distance of a reasonable walk from Trinity College.

The northern boundary of the Phoenix Park approaches the little river Tolka, which winds through a succession of delightful bits of sylvan scenery, such as may be found in the wide demesne of Abbotstown and the classic shades of Glasnevin. From the banks of the Tolka, on the opposite side of the park, the pastures ascend in a gentle slope to culminate at Dunsink, where at a distance of half-a-mile from the stream, of four miles from Dublin, and at a height of 300 feet above the sea, now stands the Observatory. From the commanding position of Dunsink a magnificent view is obtained. To the east the sea is visible, while the southern prospect over the valley of the Liffey is bounded by a range of hills and mountains extending from Killiney to Bray Head, thence to the Little Sugar Loaf, the Two Rock and the Three Rock Mountains, over the flank of which the summit of the Great Sugar Loaf is just perceptible. Directly in front opens the fine valley of Glenasmole, with Kippure Mountain, while the range can be followed to its western extremity. The climate of Dunsink is well suited for astronomical observation. No doubt here, as elsewhere in Ireland, clouds are abundant, but mists or haze are comparatively unusual, and fogs are almost unknown.

DUNSINK OBSERVATORYThe legal formalities to be observed in assuming occupation exacted a delay of many months: accordingly, it was not until the 10th December, 1782, that a contract could be made with Mr. Graham Moyers for the erection of a meridian room and a dome for an Equatorial, in conjunction with a becoming residence for the Astronomer. Before the work was commenced at Dunsink, the Board thought it expedient to appoint the first Professor of Astronomy. They met for this purpose on the 22nd January, 1783, and chose the Reverend Henry Ussher, a Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin The wisdom of the appointment was immediately shown by the assiduity with which Ussher engaged in founding the Observatory. In three years he had erected the buildings and equipped them with instruments, several of which were of his own invention. On the 19th of February, 1785, a special grant of £200 was made by the Board to Dr. Ussher as some recompense for his labours. It happened that the Observatory was not the only scientific institution which came into being in Ireland at this period: the newly-kindled ardour for the pursuit of knowledge led, at the same time, to the foundation of the Royal Irish Academy. By a fitting coincidence, the first memoir published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy was by the first Andrews Professor of Astronomy.It was read on the 13th of June, 1785, and bore the title, “Account of the Observatory belonging to Trinity College,” by the Reverend H. Ussher, D.D., M.R.I.A., F.R.S. This communication shows the extensive design that had been originally intended for Dunsink, only a part of which was, however, carried out. For instance, two long corridors running north and south from the central edifice, which are figured in the paper, never developed into bricks and mortar. We are not told why the original scheme had to be contracted; but perhaps the reason may be not unconnected with a remark of Ussher’s, that the College had already advanced from its own funds a sum considerably exceeding the original bequest. A picture of the building, showing also the dome for the South Equatorial, which was erected many years later, is given onpage 133.

DUNSINK OBSERVATORY

The legal formalities to be observed in assuming occupation exacted a delay of many months: accordingly, it was not until the 10th December, 1782, that a contract could be made with Mr. Graham Moyers for the erection of a meridian room and a dome for an Equatorial, in conjunction with a becoming residence for the Astronomer. Before the work was commenced at Dunsink, the Board thought it expedient to appoint the first Professor of Astronomy. They met for this purpose on the 22nd January, 1783, and chose the Reverend Henry Ussher, a Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin The wisdom of the appointment was immediately shown by the assiduity with which Ussher engaged in founding the Observatory. In three years he had erected the buildings and equipped them with instruments, several of which were of his own invention. On the 19th of February, 1785, a special grant of £200 was made by the Board to Dr. Ussher as some recompense for his labours. It happened that the Observatory was not the only scientific institution which came into being in Ireland at this period: the newly-kindled ardour for the pursuit of knowledge led, at the same time, to the foundation of the Royal Irish Academy. By a fitting coincidence, the first memoir published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy was by the first Andrews Professor of Astronomy.It was read on the 13th of June, 1785, and bore the title, “Account of the Observatory belonging to Trinity College,” by the Reverend H. Ussher, D.D., M.R.I.A., F.R.S. This communication shows the extensive design that had been originally intended for Dunsink, only a part of which was, however, carried out. For instance, two long corridors running north and south from the central edifice, which are figured in the paper, never developed into bricks and mortar. We are not told why the original scheme had to be contracted; but perhaps the reason may be not unconnected with a remark of Ussher’s, that the College had already advanced from its own funds a sum considerably exceeding the original bequest. A picture of the building, showing also the dome for the South Equatorial, which was erected many years later, is given onpage 133.

DUNSINK OBSERVATORY.The legal formalities to be observed in assuming occupation exacted a delay of many months: accordingly, it was not until the 10th December, 1782, that a contract could be made with Mr. Graham Moyers for the erection of a meridian room and a dome for an Equatorial, in conjunction with a becoming residence for the Astronomer. Before the work was commenced at Dunsink, the Board thought it expedient to appoint the first Professor of Astronomy. They met for this purpose on the 22nd January, 1783, and chose the Reverend Henry Ussher, a Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin The wisdom of the appointment was immediately shown by the assiduity with which Ussher engaged in founding the Observatory. In three years he had erected the buildings and equipped them with instruments, several of which were of his own invention. On the 19th of February, 1785, a special grant of £200 was made by the Board to Dr. Ussher as some recompense for his labours. It happened that the Observatory was not the only scientific institution which came into being in Ireland at this period: the newly-kindled ardour for the pursuit of knowledge led, at the same time, to the foundation of the Royal Irish Academy. By a fitting coincidence, the first memoir published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy was by the first Andrews Professor of Astronomy.It was read on the 13th of June, 1785, and bore the title, “Account of the Observatory belonging to Trinity College,” by the Reverend H. Ussher, D.D., M.R.I.A., F.R.S. This communication shows the extensive design that had been originally intended for Dunsink, only a part of which was, however, carried out. For instance, two long corridors running north and south from the central edifice, which are figured in the paper, never developed into bricks and mortar. We are not told why the original scheme had to be contracted; but perhaps the reason may be not unconnected with a remark of Ussher’s, that the College had already advanced from its own funds a sum considerably exceeding the original bequest. A picture of the building, showing also the dome for the South Equatorial, which was erected many years later, is given onpage 133.

DUNSINK OBSERVATORY.

Ussher died in 1790. During his brief career at the Observatory, he observed eclipses, and is stated to have done other scientific work. The minutes of the Board declare that the infant institution had already obtained celebrity by his labours, and they urge the claims of his widow to a pension on the ground that the disease from which he died had been contracted by his nightly vigils. The Board also promised a grant of fifty guineas as a help to bring out Dr. Ussher’s sermons. They advanced twenty guineas to his widow towards the publication of his astronomical papers. They ordered his bust to be executed for the Observatory, and offered “The Death of Ussher” as the subject of a prize essay; but, so far as I can find, neither the sermons nor the papers, neither the bust nor the prize essay, ever came into being.

There was keen competition for the Chair of Astronomy, which the death of Ussher vacated. The two candidates were Rev. John Brinkley, of Caius College, Cambridge, a Senior Wrangler (born at Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1763), and Mr. Stack, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and author of a book on Optics. A majority of the Board at first supported Stack, while Provost Hely Hutchinson and one or two others supported Brinkley. In those days the Provost had a veto at elections, so that ultimately Stack was withdrawn, and Brinkley was elected. This took place on the 11th December, 1790. The national press of the day commented on the preference shown to the young Englishman, Brinkley, over his Irish rival. An animated controversy ensued. The Provost himself condescended to enter the lists, and to vindicate his policy by a long letter in thePublic Register or Freeman’s Journal, of 21st December, 1790. This letter was anonymous, but its authorship is obvious. It gives the correspondence with Maskelyne and other eminent astronomers, whose advice and guidance had been sought by the Provost. It also contends that “the transactions of the Board oughtnot to be canvassed in the newspapers.” For this reference, as well as for much other information, I am indebted to my friend the Rev. John W. Stubbs, D.D.

The next event in the history of the Observatory was the issue of Letters Patent (32 Geo. III.,A.D.1792), in which it is recited that “We grant and ordain that there shall be for ever hereafter a Professor of Astronomy, on the foundation of Dr. Andrews, to be called and known by the name of the Royal Astronomer of Ireland.” The letters prescribe the various duties of the Astronomer, and the mode of his election. They lay down regulations as to the conduct of the astronomical work, and as to the choice of an assistant. They direct that the Provost and Senior Fellows shall make a thorough inspection of the Observatory once every year, in June or July; and this duty was first undertaken on the 5th of July, 1792. It will thus be noted that the date fixed for the celebration of the Tercentenary of the University happens to be the centenary of the first Visitation of the Observatory. The Visitors on the first occasion were—A. Murray, Matthew Young, George Hall, and John Barrett. They record that they find the buildings, books, and instruments in good condition; but the chief feature in this report, as well as in many which followed it, related to a circumstance to which we have not yet referred.

In the original equipment of the Observatory, Ussher, with the natural ambition of a founder, desired to place in it a telescope of more magnificent proportions than could be found anywhere else. The Board gave a spirited support to this enterprise, and negotiations were entered into with the most eminent instrument-maker of those days. This was Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800), famous as the improver of the sextant, as the constructor of the great Theodolite used by General Roy in the English Survey, and as the inventor of the Dividing Engine for graduating astronomical instruments. Ramsden had built for Sir George Schuckburgh the largest and most perfect Equatorial ever attempted. He had constructed mural quadrants for Padua and Verona, which elicited the wonder of astronomers, when Dr. Maskelyne declared he could detect no error in their graduation as large as two seconds and a-half. But Ramsden maintained that even better results would be obtained by superseding the entire quadrant by the circle. He obtained the means of testing this prediction when he completed a superb circle for Palermo of five feet diameter. Finding his anticipations were realised, he desired to apply the same principles on a still grander scale. Ramsden was in this mood when he met with Dr. Ussher. The enthusiasm of the Astronomer and the instrument-maker communicated itself to the Board, and a tremendous circle, to be ten feet in diameter, was forthwith projected.

Projected, but never carried out. After Ramsden had to some extent completed a ten-foot circle, he found such difficulties that he tried a nine-foot, and this again he discarded for an eight-foot, which was ultimately accomplished, though not entirely by himself. Notwithstanding the contraction from the vast proportions originally designed, the completed instrument must still be regarded as a colossal piece of astronomical workmanship. Even at this day I do not know that any other Observatory except Dunsink can show a circle eight feet in diameter graduated all round.

I think it is Professor Piazzi Smyth who tells us how grateful he was to find a large telescope he had ordered finished by the opticians on the very day they had promised it. The day was perfectly correct; it was only the year that was wrong. A somewhat remarkable experience in this direction is chronicled by the early reports of the Visitors to the Dunsink Observatory. I cannot find the date on which the great circle was ordered from Ramsden, but it is fixed with sufficient precision by an allusion in Ussher’s paper to the Royal Irish Academy, which shows that by the 13th June, 1785, the order had been given, but that the abandonment of the ten-foot scale had not then been contemplated. It was reasonable that the Board should allow Ramsden ample time for the completion of a work at once so elaborate and so novel. It could not have been finished in a year, nor would there have been much reason for complaint if the maker had found he required two or even three years more.

Seven years gone, and still no telescope, was the condition in which the Board found matters at their first Visitation in 1792. They had, however, assurances from Ramsden that the instrument would be completed within the year; but, alas for such promises! another seven years rolled on, and in 1799 the place for the great circle was still vacant at Dunsink. Ramsden had fallen into bad health, and the Board considerately directed that “inquiries should be made.” Next year there was still no progress, so the Board were roused to threaten Ramsden with a suit at law; but the menace was never executed, for the malady of the great optician grew worse, and he died that year.

Affairs had now assumed a critical aspect, for the College had advanced much money to Ramsden during these fifteen years, and the instrument was still unfinished. An appeal was made by the Provost to Dr. Maskelyne, the Astronomer-Royal of England, for his advice and kindly offices in this emergency. Maskelyne responds—in terms calculated to allay the anxiety of the Bursar—“Mr. Ramsden has left property behind him, and the College can be in no danger of losing both their money and the instrument.” The businessof Ramsden was then undertaken by Berge, who proceeded to finish the great circle quite as deliberately as his predecessor. After four years Berge promised the instrument in the following August, but it did not come. Two years later (1806) the Professor complains that he can get no answer from Berge. In 1807 it is stated that Berge will send the telescope in a month. He did not; but in the next year (1808), about twenty-three years after the great circle was ordered, it was erected at Dunsink, where it is still to be seen.

The following circumstances have been authenticated by the signatures of Provosts, Proctors, Bursars, and other College dignitaries:—In 1793 the Board ordered two of the clocks at the Observatory to be sent to Mr. Crosthwaite for repairs. Seven years later, in 1800, Mr. Crosthwaite was asked if the clocks were ready. This impatience was clearly unreasonable, for even in four years more, 1804, we find the two clocks were still in hands. Two years later, in 1806, the Board determined to take vigorous action by asking the Bursar to call upon Crosthwaite. This evidently produced some effect, for in the following year, 1807, the Professor had no doubt that the clocks would be speedily returned. After eight years more, in 1815, one of the clocks was still being repaired, and so it was in 1816, which is the last record we have of these interesting timepieces. Astronomers are, however, accustomed to deal with such stupendous periods in their calculations, that even the time taken to repair a clock seems but small in comparison.

The long tenure of the Chair of Astronomy by Brinkley is divided into two nearly equal periods by the year in which the great circle was erected. Brinkley was eighteen years waiting for his telescope, and he had eighteen years more in which to use it. During the first of these periods Brinkley devoted himself to mathematical research; during the latter he became a celebrated astronomer. Brinkley’s mathematical labours procured for their author some reputation as a mathematician. They appear to be works of considerable mathematical elegance, but not indicating any great power of original thought. Perhaps it has been prejudicial to Brinkley’s fame in this direction that he was immediately followed in his chair by so mighty a genius as William Rowan Hamilton.

After the great circle had been at last erected, Brinkley was able to begin his astronomical work in earnest. Nor was there much time to lose. He was already 45 years old, a year older than was Herschel when he commenced his immortal career at Slough. Stimulated by the consciousness of having the command of an instrument of unique perfection, Brinkley loftily attempted the very highest class of astronomical research. He resolved to measure anew with his own eye and with his own hand the constants of aberration and of nutation. Healso strove to solve that great problem of the universe, the discovery of the distance of a fixed star.

These were noble problems, and they were nobly attacked. But to appraise with justice this work of Brinkley, done seventy years ago, we must not apply to it the same criteria as we would think right to apply to similar work were it done now. We do not any longer use Brinkley’s constant of aberration, nor do we now think that Brinkley’s determinations of the star-distances were reliable. But, nevertheless, his investigations exercised a marked influence on the progress of science: they stimulated the study of the principles on which exact measurements were to be conducted.

Brinkley had another profession in addition to that of an astronomer. He was a divine. When a man endeavours to pursue two distinct occupations concurrently, it will be equally easy to explain why his career should be successful, or why it should be the reverse. If he succeeds, he will, of course, exemplify the wisdom of having provided two strings to his bow. Should he fail, it is, of course, because he has attempted to sit on two stools at once. In Brinkley’s case, his two professions must be likened to the two strings rather than to the two stools. It is true that his practical experience of a clerical life was very slender. He had made no attempt to combine the routine of a parish with his labours in the Observatory. Nor do we associate a special eminence in any department of religious work with his name. If, however, we are to measure Brinkley’s merits as a divine by the ecclesiastical preferment which he received, his services to theology must have rivalled his services to astronomy. Having been raised step by step in the church, he was at last appointed to the See of Cloyne in 1826 as the successor of Bishop Berkeley.

Now, though it was permissible for the Archdeacon to be also the Andrews Professor, yet when the Archdeacon became a Bishop it was understood that he should transfer his residence from the Observatory to the Palace. The Chair of Astronomy accordingly became vacant. Brinkley’s subsequent career seems to have been devoted entirely to ecclesiastical matters, and for the last ten years of his life he did not contribute a paper to any scientific society. Arago, after a characteristic lament that Brinkley should have forsaken the pursuit of Science for the temporal and spiritual attractions of a Bishopric, pays a tribute to the conscientiousness of the quondam astronomer:—

“A partir du jour ou il fut revêtu de l’episcopat, l’homme dont toute la vie avait été consacrée jusque-là à la contemplation du firmament et à la solution des questions sublimes qui recèlent les mouvements des astres, divorca complétement avec ces douces, avec ces entraînantesoccupations, pour se livrer sans partage aux devoirs de sa charge nouvelle, afin d’échapper, je suppose, à la tentation, l’ex-Directeur de l’Observatoire Royal d’Irlande, l’ex-Andrews Professor d’Astronomie de l’Université n’avait pas même dans son palais la plus modeste lunette. On doit la révélation de se fait presque incroyable, à l’indiscrétion d’une personne qui s’étant trouvée chez l’évêque de Cloyne un jour d’éclipse de Lune, eut le déplaisir, faute d’instruments, de ne pouvoir suivre la marche du phénomène qu’avec ses yeux.”

The good Bishop died on the 13th September, 1835. He was buried in the Chapel of Trinity College, and a fine monument to his memory is a familiar object at the foot of the noble old staircase of the library. The best memorial of Brinkley is his admirable book on theElements of Plane Astronomy. It passed through many editions in his lifetime, and even at the present day the same work, revised first by Dr. Luby and more recently by the Rev. Dr. Stubbs and Dr. Brünnow, has a large and well-merited circulation.

On the 4th August, 1805, a few years before the great circle was erected at the Observatory, William Rowan Hamilton was born in No. 36, Dominick Street, Dublin. He was educated by his uncle, the Rev. James Hamilton, at Trim, and his aunt, Jane Sidney Hamilton. The astounding precocity of the child is thus described by his biographer, Mr. Graves, to whose laborious and painstaking execution of his great task I must here make my acknowledgments. Of William Rowan Hamilton it is asserted that, “continuing a vigorous child in spirits and playfulness, he was, at three years of age, a superior reader of English and considerably advanced in arithmetic; at four, a good geographer; at five, able to read and translate Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and loving to recite Dryden, Collins, Milton, and Homer; at eight he has added Italian and French, and given vent to his feelings in extemporised Latin; and before he is ten he is a student of Arabic and Sanskrit. And all this knowledge seems to have been acquired, not indeed without diligence, but with perfect ease, and applied, as occasion arose, with practical judgment and tact.”[107]

When Hamilton was seventeen years old (1822), he had written original mathematical papers, and with two of these—entitled respectively, “Osculating Parabola to Curves of Double Curvature,” and “On Contacts between Algebraic Curves and Surfaces”—he paid a visit to Dr. Brinkley at the Observatory. The Royal Astronomer was impressed by their value, and desired to see them in a more developed form. Thus originated an acquaintance between the scientific veteran, soon to be a Bishop, and the brilliant lad about to enter college.

After Brinkley had been appointed Bishop of Cloyne in 1826, Hamilton was immediately mentioned as his probable successor. Mr. Graves, to whom I am indebted for these particulars, assures us that Hamilton never put himself forward until a week before the election, when he received an urgent letter from his tutor, Mr. Boyton, to say that the Board were favourably disposed towards him. On the 16th June, 1827, the undergraduate of twenty-two, William Rowan Hamilton, was unanimously elected to the Chair of Astronomy. Nor was he without formidable competitors. Airy was a candidate, and so were some of the Fellows of Trinity College; yet a general approval, almost unanimous, ratified the choice of the Board. We say almost unanimous, because there was at least one weighty opinion on the other side. Bishop Brinkley thought that Hamilton had acted imprudently in accepting the post, and that it would have been wiser for him to have sought a Fellowship. With Hamilton’s life before us, we can now see that the Bishop was not right. The leisure and the seclusion of the Observatory were necessary conditions for Hamilton’s colossal labours. After his election to the Chair of Astronomy, Hamilton proceeded to his degree in the usual manner; but before doing so, he had, as an undergraduate, to perform the somewhat anomalous duty of examining graduates in the higher branches of mathematics for Bishop Law’s mathematical premium.

The history of Dunsink Observatory for the next 38 years may be epitomised in a single word—Quaternions. It will be unnecessary to refer in any detail to the great career of our great mathematician. The early promise of the marvellous child and the brilliant career of the unparalleled student soon bore fruit in the congenial atmosphere of the Observatory. Conical Refraction, the Theory of Rays, the general method of Dynamics—any one of these researches would have conferred fame of which the greatest mathematician might have been proud, but with Hamilton these were merely incidental to the great work of his life. With huge industry he cultivated his powers, he wrought his mighty system of Quaternions, and found in it a weapon adequate to deal with the most profound mathematical problems of nature. It is not Hamilton’s fault if others have found that to wield this sword of a giant the arm of the giant is also necessary. Most of us feel satisfied if we know enough to be able to reverence the two awful volumes which every mathematician likes to see on his shelves, and which he generally leaves there.

So great a personality as Hamilton has naturally gathered around itself much biographical interest. The intimacy between Hamilton and Wordsworth has given many interesting pages to Mr. Graves’ book, and how intimate the friendship became may be conjectured from the account of their first meeting. We are told how Hamilton walked back with Wordsworthto see him home after a delightful evening, and how Wordsworth then turned to see Hamilton back, and how the process was repeated I know not how often. It appears that Hamilton submitted his poetic effusions to his friend, and they were returned with gentle criticism, though with an occasional admission by Wordsworth that the mathematician’s verses possessed genuine feeling. Then there is the visit of Wordsworth to Dunsink, where to this day a beautiful shady walk bears his name. Hamilton enjoyed the privilege of intimacy with many cultivated intellects. He knew Coleridge; with Sir John Herschel he was in frequent communication; and he had many lady correspondents, including Maria Edgeworth. The bulk of Hamilton’s scientific correspondence was with the late Professor De Morgan, a man whose intellectual endowments were of such a different type to those of Hamilton, that, except in being both mathematicians, they had but little in common. On the death of Hamilton, De Morgan writes to Sir John Herschel (Sept. 13, 1865):—

“W. R. Hamilton was an intimate friend whom I spoke to once in my life—at Babbage’s about 1830; but for 30 years we have corresponded. Isawhim a second time at the dinner you got at the Freemason’s when you came from the Cape, but I could not get near enough to speak.”[108]

The Observatory had the usual equipment of a transit instrument, a circle, and an equatorial, but no further additions were made to the instruments during the long sojourn of Hamilton. Observations were made by the assistant, Mr. Thomson, who, after a life passed in the service, retired in 1874, and lived a few years to enjoy the pension conferred on him by the Board. Just before Sir W. Hamilton’s death an important donation was received by the College. I shall here mention the circumstances under which it was made. The particulars were related to me partly by the donor himself, and partly by the late Earl of Rosse. The chief incidents in the narrative may be found in the life of De Morgan[109]to which I have already referred.

Sir James South was a medical man who acquired considerable wealth early in life, and then devoted himself with great assiduity to astronomy. He became an expert observer, and in conjunction with Sir John Herschel formed a series of double star measures that obtained much fame. Honours flowed in upon South; he received a pension and a knighthood; and he prepared for further astronomical work. His first care was to procure a superior telescope, and from Cauchoix, a French optician of renown, he procured an object-glass 12 inches indiameter, and possessing great optical perfection. For this lens, or rather pair of lenses, he paid either £800 or £1,000. South returned with this prize to his observatory at Campden Hill, Kensington, and commenced to have the mounting executed in a manner befitting the optical excellence of the lens. Brunel designed the revolving dome; it was made of mahogany, and cost, I believe, £2,000; and inside this building the eminent firm of Troughton & Simms were called upon to erect the telescope. But sad troubles followed, of which an entertaining account is given in De Morgan’s Life (p. 61), and the mounting was a dismal failure.

Sir James South, at all events in the later part of his career, dearly loved a fray. He commissioned a friend to bear a hostile message to a distinguished scientific contemporary. The duel never came off. Perhaps, even if it had, the results might not have been sanguinary, for it had been suggested that the two astronomers would, of course, have been placed at telescopic distances apart. But to those to whom he was attached his loyalty and devotion were unbounded; his purse and his influence were alike at their disposal. To these characteristics of South we owe the great equatorial telescope now at Dunsink Observatory.

SOUTH EQUATORIAL, DUNSINK.

The precious object-glass remained in his possession for about thirty years, until such time as the late Earl of Rosse was installed as Chancellor of the University. The Earl was one of Sir James’ warm friends, and he celebrated the occasion by presenting the great object-glass to the University of Dublin. The date of the gift is 17th February, 1863.

It was thus only a few years before Sir W. R. Hamilton’s death that Dunsink Observatory possessed a really fine objective; but it was only an objective, it was not a telescope. The engrossing labours of Sir W. R. Hamilton’s mathematical work, his advancing years, and his declining health, did not permit him to undertake the arduous labour of its erection. Sir James South found in this a sad grievance. I have heard him denounce this inaction with that vigorous language which he was accustomed to use. He had even offered to contribute liberally to the expenses of mounting, if the College authorities would put it in hands. It was not, however, until Sir W. R. Hamilton’s successor was appointed (1865) that the work was done. South lived just long enough to know that the great instrument was at last being erected. A view of the instrument, named the South Equatorial, after the donor, is shown in the adjoining illustration.

The successor of Sir William Rowan Hamilton as Andrews Professor of Astronomy was Dr. Francis Brünnow. He was a German by birth, who had distinguished himself by various astronomical researches, and by an excellent work on Practical Astronomy. He had previously occupied the Chair of Astronomy at the University of Michigan. When Brünnow came to Dunsink, his first care was the mounting of the great South Equatorial. A building was erected on the lawn, surmounted by a dome, and fitted with revolving machinery by Messrs. Grubb, who also constructed the tube and stand. A micrometer, from the Berlin firm of Messrs. Pistor & Martin, was added, and thus the South object-glass, forty years after it was made, came into actual use.

Dr. Brünnow devoted himself chiefly to the investigation of the Parallax of Stars. In this he was, indeed, following the traditions of the Observatory as laid down by Brinkley. Brünnow published two parts of his researches on this difficult subject. These papers are now regarded as a classical authority in this branch of astronomy. The pains which he took to eliminate error, and the consummate manner in which he has discussed his results, show him to have been both a skilful observer and an ingenious computer.

The fundamental equipment of the modern Observatory must include an equatorial and a meridian circle. Dunsink was now provided with the former, but there was no meridian circle. The great Ramsden instrument had become obsolete. The old transit had also seen more than half-a-century of service, and could not be relied on for accurate work. A splendid meridian circle was therefore ordered, by the liberality of the Board, from Messrs. Pistor & Martin, of Berlin. It was erected in 1872-1873, at a cost of £800. The aperture of this instrument is 6·4 inches and the length is 8 feet. The circles are divided to two-minute spaces, and read byeight microscopes, four on each side. The instrument can be reversed, and has north and south collimators. The Meridian Room and the fine instrument just described are shown in the subjoined illustration.

MERIDIAN ROOM, DUNSINK.

In 1874 Dr. Brünnow resigned, and was succeeded by the present writer; and about the same time Dr. Ralph Copeland was appointed assistant. In the following year Dr. Copeland went to the Earl of Crawford’s Observatory at Dunecht, and he now fills the distinguished position of Royal Astronomer of Scotland. Dr. Copeland was succeeded as assistant at Dunsink by Mr. C. E. Burton. Failing health caused Mr. Burton’s resignation in 1878, and Dr. J. L. E. Dreyer then came to Dunsink, where he remained till the death of the late Dr. Romney Robinson in 1882 created a vacancy in the post of Astronomer at Armagh, to which Dr. Dreyer was then appointed. His place at Dunsink was filled by Dr. Arthur A. Rambaut, the present assistant.

Among the additions made to the Observatory under my direction may be mentioned an electric chronograph for recording transits. A time service has also been in operation for many years, by which the standard mean time clock in the Observatory controls, on Jones’ system, the Front clock and the Board-room clock in the Port and Docks Office, Westmoreland Street, Dublin. The ball falls at this office at 1 p.m., Greenwich time, and the fact of falling reports itself automatically at Dunsink, while theFront clock reports itself at Dunsink every minute. But the chief addition to the Observatory in late years is the superb reflecting telescope for photographic purposes, which is the gift of Isaac Roberts, Esq., F.R.S., of Crowborough, Sussex. This instrument has been established in the small dome on the top of the Observatory.

The last chronicle of Dunsink that it may be necessary here to mention is that Sir Robert Ball was appointed, on 20th February, 1892, to succeed Professor J. Couch Adams as Lowndean Professor of Astronomy in the University of Cambridge.

(Decorative chapter ending)

FOOTNOTES:[107]Graves’Life of Hamilton, vol. i., p. 46.[108]Life of De Morgan, by his wife, p. 333.[109]Ibid.

[107]Graves’Life of Hamilton, vol. i., p. 46.

[108]Life of De Morgan, by his wife, p. 333.

[109]Ibid.

(Decorative chapter heading)

“The Books, but especially the Parchments.”

THE LIBRARY.

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