24 
HISTORY OF THE 
[1820-30 
was found upon examination to have been altered so as to be out 
of form, and a new one having been supplied by the liberality of 
one of the Curators of the Observatory, William Gray, Esq., it has 
been remounted in a new tube provided with eye-pieces, and the 
instrument has thus been rendered very perfect. 
The portable transit by Joneg has disappeared, and we see 
that the equatorial was replaced in 1857 : but the sidereal clock 
by Barraud is still in the Observatory and keeps fair time, as the 
present observer kindly informs me. He adds that Dr. Pearson 
also presented the conical roof of the Observatory, which had 
served as the roof of a summer-house in his rectory garden at 
South Kilworth, and w r as constructed under the direction of the 
celebrated Smeaton. It may perhaps be added that there had been 
an Observatory in York before that due to Dr. Pearson’s stimulus, 
viz., that of Edward Pigott, who gave its longitude (from occulta- 
tions) to Maskelyne in 1787 (4 m 25 s W.). It was from this Obser 
vatory that Goodricke observed Algol and 8 Cephei in 1782 ; and 
Goodricke’s papers are still preserved in (Dr.Pearson’s)Observatory. 
The school at East Sheen started by Dr. Pearson did not by 
any means close when he went to South Kilworth. Our Fellow, 
Admiral Sir H. Purey-Cust, was a scholar 1866-70, and has kindly 
supplied some picturesque details about it, partly from the Temple 
Grove Register (by H. W. Waterfield, 1905). Temple Grove, 
formerly called Sheen Grove, was built in 1610. It has been 
generally supposed that Sir William Temple lived there, and that 
with him, as secretary, lived Jonathan Swift, better known as 
Dean Swift. Here Swift became acquainted with the beautiful 
and accomplished Stella, born at this place and the daughter of 
Sir William Temple’s steward. (The same claim is, however, made 
for Moor Park, another residence of Sir William Temple.) “ The 
property descended to the first Lord Palmerston, who subsequently 
sold it to Sir John Barnard. In or about 1810 it was bought by 
Dr. William Pearson, who came from Parson’s Green and apparently 
brought a school with him. On part of the estate he built the 
Observatory, where an inscription round the central pillar runs as 
follows :—To the memory of the Right Hon. Spencer Perceval, 
who was cruelly murdered on the nth of May 1812, on which day 
this edifice was also founded, the subjacent pillar is dedicated by 
his grateful friend W. Pearson.” 
Both Dr. Pearson (headmaster, 1810-17) and Dr. Pinckney 
(headmaster, 1817-1835) lived in the Observatory after retiring 
from the headmastership. 
There is a tradition that Benjamin Disraeli was at the school, 
based on a passage in Coningsby describing how the hero was sent 
to a “ fashionable school ” (cp. the extract from the Council