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Chap. X.J Scientific 'Reminiscences. 117
live at Hailsham, they were most of them sold by auction, and bought for the Museum, Dr. Jeffery retaining only a few which he still has at his house, Carter s Corner. Amongst them are 2 of importance ; a golden eagle (Aquila Chrysaetos), and a white-tailed or sea eagle (Halietus Albicilla), both shot near Beachy Head.
A chapter on Science at East-Bourne would not be complete without mention of the fact that in the " Nineties," Professor T. H. Huxley resided at Meads for some years. His principles were so distasteful to me that I never sought his acquaintance, and had no nearer personal knowledge of him than that derived from sitting opposite to him or near him in a railway carriage, and from having heard him lecture at the Royal Institution.
In 1877, when preparing for press a new edition of my Handbook of Astronomy, I found it necessary to unearth something connected with the late Sir John Herschel, so I wrote to his widow, Lady Herschel, to ask what I wanted to know. Instead of answering my question, she very kindly said " Come and see for yourself," so on January 25, 1877,1 found myself dining and sleeping at Collingwood, near Hawkhurst, just over the Sussex border in Kent. It was a peculiarly interesting visit, not only from the kind and friendly reception which I met with from Lady Herschel and her daughters, and from the fact that I was able to do the work and find the references which I wranted, but from what I saw. Sir John's study, a spacious airy room with a large library table in the centre, had been left untouched as he himself had used it, and left it; so that, in other words, the whole contents of the room were arranged in a state of order and classification which greatly facilitated the work of a stranger in hunting up any particular branch of Astronomy. One of the 2 daughters I then met was Lady Gordon, now the widow of General the Hon. Sir A. Hamilton-Gordon, and her experiences as the wife of a distinguished soldier wdio had served in foreign parts, was itself something to listen to.
After Lady Herschel's death, Collingwood was sold, |
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