ork went on famously, as might be expected from so much ardour,
perseverance, and ingenuity. Of a Quaker resident at Bath, the
musician-astronomer purchased a quantity of patterns, tools, hones,
polishers, and unfinished mirrors. Every room in the house was converted
into a workshop. In a handsomely-furnished drawing-room might be seen
a cabinetmaker constructing a tube and stands of all descriptions;
while Herschel's brother Alex was engaged in a bedroom in putting up a
gigantic turning-machine. Meantime, the claims of music could not be
ignored: there were frequent rehearsals for the public concerts; lessons
to pupils; the composition of glees and catches, and the like; the
superintendence of the practice of the chapel choir; and the study of
sonatas and concertos for public performance. But all the leisure that
could be made or stolen was occupied in labours which proved their own
reward. Straight from the concert-platform rushed the musician to his
workshop, and many a lace ruffle was torn by nails or bespattered by
molten pitch; to say nothing of the positive danger to which Herschel
continually exposed himself by the precipitancy of his movements. For
example: one Saturday evening, when the two brothers returned from a
concert between eleven and twelve o'clock, William amused himself all
the way home with the idea of being at liberty to spend the next day,
except the few hours' duty at chapel, at the turning-bench; but
recollecting that the tools wanted sharpening, they ran with them
and a lantern to their landlord's grindstone in a public yard, where,
very naturally, they did not wish to be seen on a Sunday morning. But
William was soon brought back by his brother, almost swooning with the
loss of one of his finger-nails.

This incident took place in the winter of 1775, at a house situated
near Walcot turnpike, to which Herschel had removed in the summer of the
previous year. Here, on a grass plot behind the house, he made active
preparations for the erection of a twenty-foot telescope. So assiduous
was his devotion to this work, that while he was engaged in polishing
the mirror, his sister was constantly obliged to feed him by putting his
victuals into his mouth. Otherwise he would have reduced himself to a
condition of positive emaciation! Once, when finishing a seven-foot
mirror, he did not take his hands from it for sixteen consecutive hours;
for in these days machinery had not been devised as a substitute for