Grove-Hills, should not be ignored because it fell just outside our limiting dates.
Colonel Grove-Hills was treasurer at the time when our centenary was celebrated in 1922, and was actively engaged in rectifying our finances; his death a few months later was a real tragedy. He is also one of the joint authors of this volume, and it seems in every way appropriate to include his among the few portraits in the volume.
As regards the other portraits, we are fortunate to have recovered one of Dr. Pearson by the kind help, first, of Admiral Sir H. E. Purey Cust, and secondly, of the Rev. R. M. B. Bryant, the present Rector of South Kilworth, who lent us a framed portrait presented to the South Kilworth Reading Room in 1902, by Col. W. Pearson, J.P., D.L., a nephew of our founder. A fine portrait of Francis Baily has long hung in our Council Room, so that his features are familiar to many of us, although those of Dr. Pearson were hitherto unknown; but a portrait of Baily could not possibly be omitted from this volume. The portrait of John Herschel is well-known as an engraving, but by the kindness of the Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, Dr. R. F. Scott, we are enabled to include a photograph, made directly from the picture by Pickersgill which hangs in St. John's College. The steel engravings of Adams and Airy have been very courteously supplied by Messrs. Macmillan, and will be recognised as having originally appeared in Nature. Reference is made on pages 27, 28 to the tragic history of one of our Fellows, Waterston, whose greatness was not recognised in his lifetime; it seems appropriate to make some poor amends by including him among those whose portraits are given. For De Morgan, we look in vain among the Presidents in the Meeting-Room: we have it on his son's authority that he consistently declined the office on the ground that a President of the R.A.S. should be "either an actual star-gazer or at least a telescope-twiddler." His portrait is here reproduced from the Memoir of him published by Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co., with their kind permission, and also that of Messrs. Speaight, Ltd., who now own the original negative taken by Mayall. There is an old print of Sir Joseph Banks, dated 1789, the reproduction of which was debated, because this sturdy opponent of our foundation is shewn holding in his hand Russell's drawing of the moon; but the ultimate decision was in the negative. The other selections require perhaps no explanation, though apology may be offered for the inevitable defects of any limited choice among so many worthy figures.
1923 October.
