From dusk till dawn, when the sky was clear, were Herschel's observing
hours, and what this sometimes implied we can realise from the fact
that Caroline assures us she had sometimes to desist because the ink
had actually frozen in her pen. The night's work over, a brief rest
was taken, and while William had his labours for the day to attend to,
Caroline carefully transcribed the observations made during the night
before, reduced all the figures and prepared everything in readiness
for the observations that were to follow on the ensuing evening.
But we have here been anticipating a little of the future which lay
before the great astronomer; we must now revert to the history of his
early work, at Bath, in 1774, when Herschel's scrutiny of the skies
first commenced with an instrument of his own manufacture. For some
few years he did not attain any result of importance; no doubt he
made a few interesting observations, but the value of the work during
those years is to be found, not in any actual discoveries which were
accomplished, but in the practice which Herschel obtained in the use
of his instruments. It was not until 1782 that the great achievement
took place by which he at once sprang into fame.
[PLATE: GARDEN VIEW, HERSCHEL HOUSE, SLOUGH.
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