The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
Instruction, Vol. 14, Issue 404, December 12, 1829, by Various

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Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 14,
Issue 404, December 12, 1829

Author: Various

Release Date: March 5, 2004 [eBook #11463]

Language: English

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THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

VOL. 14, NO. 404.] SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1829. [PRICE 2d.

* * * * *

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich.

[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 th