Kristian Mercer

Kristian's Rarefied Regency Tour
Day Eleven: Bath - William Herschel Museum

Only a few more days to go - we're nearing the end of my adventures in Regency England. After saying good-bye to my friends, Mr. Mercer and I drove to Bath. We had much enjoyed an earlier visit to this beautiful city, and although I was anxious to return to the sites strongly associated with Jane Austen, I was also eager to do further research off the traditional tourist paths.

Accordingly, our first stop was the Herschel Museum of Astronomy. As excerpted from my journal:

William Herschel was an eighteenth-century musician who became a well-known astronomer. Working with his sister Caroline (whom he brought from Germany as a helpmate), he set himself the goal of cataloging all the stars in the heavens. He built enormous telescopes [see the image below, at right] - one was so tall, at 40 feet, that it required three men to manuever it into position - and discovered the planet Uranus, which he named Georgium Sidus in honor of King George III.


I found Caroline's history to be even more fascinating. A brilliant musician who often sang in her brother's oratorios, Caroline learned English and mathematics at his request. Herschel later provided her with her own telescope and trained her to serve as his assistant. She spent countless hours taking notes as Herschel scanned the skies. Ultimately she became an important astronomer in her own right and discovered several comets.

I also discovered that Caroline was not alone. According to a display in the upper rooms of the Herschel Museum,

Schoolmistress Margaret Bryan was a contemporary of Caroline Herschel and also one of the earliest female astronomers. A first edition of her book, [A Compendius System of Astronomy in a Course of Familiar Lectures], was published in 1797 with the help of over 400 subscribers, of whom many were women.

Pictured above is the 1799 edition of Margaret Bryan's book.

I have to admit, I had no idea that women were engaged in such pursuits. What great new creative fodder!

Recommended reading: Caroline Herschel as a Musician, by Frank Brown
Caroline Herschel: Reflected Glory, by Sir Patrick Moore, and Caroline Herschel's Comet Sweepers, by Michael Hoskin and Brian Warner