It appears that when
he found himself in the possession of leisure and of means, he
deliberately cast around to think how that means and that leisure
could be most usefully employed. Nor was it surprising that he
should search for a direction which would offer special scope for his
mechanical tastes. He came to the conclusion that the building of
great telescopes was an art which had received no substantial advance
since the great days of William Herschel. He saw that to construct
mighty instruments for studying the heavens required at once the
command of time and the command of wealth, while he also felt that
this was a subject the inherent difficulties of which would tax to
the uttermost whatever mechanical skill he might possess. Thus it
was he decided that the construction of great telescopes should
become the business of his life.
[PLATE: BIRR CASTLE.
PLATE: THE MALL, PARSONSTOWN.]
In the centre of Ireland, seventy miles from Dublin, on the border
between King's County and Tipperary, is a little town whereof we must
be cautious before writing the name. The inhabitants of that town
frequently insist that its name is Birr, * while the official
designation is Parsonstown, and to this day for every six people who
apply one name to the town, there will be half a dozen who use the
other.
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