Sir John Herschel, one of the founders of Southern Hemisphere
astronomy, was a man of extraordinarily wide interests. He made
contributions to botany, geology, and ornithology, as well as to
astronomy, chemistry, and mathematics. Throughout his scientific
career he kept a diary, recording his public and private life. The
diaries from 1834 to 1838, years spent making astronomical
observations at the Cape of Good Hope, are reproduced in this book
and prove to be much more than an ordinary scientist's logbook.
They present personal and social history, literary commentaries,
the results of close observations of nature and numerous scientific
experiments, the excitement of travel, political intrigues, gossip,
and philosophical reflections-all interpreted through an alert and
versatile mind. In the present transcription, the material has been
enriched with selected correspondence of Sir John and his wife Lady
Herschel (nee Margaret Brodie Stewart). Sir John devoted his
working time at the Cape primarily to a systematic observation of
the southern sky, complementing his earlier "sweeping" of the
northern sky at Slough, England. He later became one of the
founders of photography, but at the Cape he used a simple optical
device, the camera lucida, in the production of numerous landscape
drawings. Many of these, along with reproductions of sketches
contained in the diaries and botanical drawings made by Sir John
and Lady Herschel, are used to illustrate this book. Sir John was
also a leading spirit in the foundation of the educational system
of the Cape and a supporter of exploratory expeditions into the
interior. As the son of Sir William Herschel, in his day the most
famous British astronomer and the discoverer of the planet Uranus,
Sir John was already celebrated when he arrived from England. Every
individual of note, resident at the Cape or visiting, went to see
him. He was supported in his work by his wife, who ran an enormous
establishment and bore a huge family, but who nevertheless found
time to travel in the country round the western Cape with him and
to assist in his observations. The diaries and letters are
supplemented by especially valuable editorial notes that provide
much needed and highly interesting information concerning persons
and events mentioned and described by Sir John. All the original
manuscript material used in this volume is held by the Harry Ransom
Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Sir John's camera
lucida drawings are from the South African Public Library in Cape
Town.
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