[Illustration: The Royal Observatory, Greenwich.]
In the present _almanack season_, as it is technically called, the above
illustration of our pages may not be inappropriate or ill-timed,
inasmuch as it represents the spot whence all English astronomers make
their calculations.
The Observatory was built by Charles II., in the year 1675--probably,
observes a recent writer, "with no better motive than to imitate Louis
XIV.," who had just completed the erection and endowment of an
observatory at Paris. The English Observatory was fortunately placed
under the direction of the celebrated Flamstead, whose name the hill, or
site of the building, still retains. He was appointed astronomer-royal
in 1676; but Charles (as in the case of the curious dial at Whitehall,
described by us a few weeks since[1]), neglected to complete what he had
so well begun: and Flamstead entered upon the duties of his appointment
with instruments principally provided _at his own expense_, and that
of a zealous patron of science, James Moore. It should seem that this
species of parsimony is hereditary in the English Government, for, upon
the authority of the _Quarterly Review_, we learn that "within the
wide range of the British Islands _there is only one observatory_
(Greenwich), _and scarcely one supported by the Government_. We say
scarcely one, because we believe that some of the instruments in the
observatory at Greenwich were purchased out of the private funds of the
Royal Society of London.
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