The reading of the manuscript of the _Poetical History of Astronomy_ was continued, "and HERSCHEL was so humble as to confess that I knew more of the history of astronomy than he did, and had surprised him with the mass of information I had got together.
"He thanked me for the entertainment and instruction I had given him. 'Can anything be grander?' and all this before he knows a word of what I have said of himself--all his discoveries, as you may remember, being kept back for the twelfth and last book."
"SLOUGH, _Monday morning._ _July 22, 1799_, in bed at Dr. HERSCHEL'S, half-past five, where I can neither sleep nor lie idle.
"My Dear Fanny:--I believe I told you on Friday that I was going to finish the perusal of my astronomical verses to the great astronomer on Saturday.
"After tea Dr. HERSCHEL proposed that we two should retire into a quiet room in order to resume the perusal of my work, in which no progress has been made since last December. The evening was finished very cheerfully; and we went to our bowers not much out of humor with each other or the world. . . . After dinner we all agreed to go to the terrace [at Windsor]--Mr., Mrs., and Miss H., with their nice little boy, and three young ladies. Here I met with almost everybody I wished and expected to see previous to the king's arrival.
"But now here comes Will, and I must get up, and make myself up to go down to the perusal of my last book, entitled _Herschel_. So good-morrow."
"Not a moment could I get to write till now. . . . I must tell you that HERSCHEL proposed to me to go with him to the king's concert at night, he having permission to go when he chooses, his five nephews (GRIESBACHS) making a principal part of the band. 'And,' says he, 'I know you will be welcome.'"
An intimacy was gradually established between HERSCHEL and Dr. BURNEY. They saw each other often at the meetings of the Royal Society, and HERSCHEL frequently stayed at the doctor's house. "On the first evening HERSCHEL spent at Chelsea, when I called for my ARGAND lamp, HERSCHEL, who had not seen one of those lamps, was surprised at the great effusion of light, and immediately calculated the difference between that and a single candle, and found it sixteen to one."[25]