observers had seen, for he began to contrive a telescope eighteen or
twenty feet long (I believe after HUYGHENS' description). . . . I was
much hindered in my musical practice by my help being continually
wanted in the execution of the various contrivances, and I had to
amuse myself with making the tube of pasteboard for the glasses,
which were to arrive from London, for at that time no optician had
settled at Bath. But when all was finished, no one besides my
brother could get a glimpse of Jupiter or Saturn, for the great
length of the tube would not allow it to be kept in a straight line.
This difficulty, however, was soon removed by substituting tin
tubes. . . . My brother wrote to inquire the price of a reflecting
mirror for (I believe) a five or six foot telescope. The answer was,
there were none of so large a size, but a person offered to make one
at a price much above what my brother thought proper to give. . . .
About this time he bought of a Quaker, resident at Bath, who had
formerly made attempts at polishing mirrors, all his rubbish of
patterns, tools, hones, polishers, unfinished mirrors, etc., but all
for small Gregorians, and none above two or three inches diameter.

"But nothing serious could be attempted, for want of time, till the
beginning of June, when some of my brother's scholars were leaving
Bath; and then, to my sorrow, I saw almost every room turned into a
workshop. A cabinet-maker making a tube and stands of all
descriptions in a handsomely furnished drawing-room; ALEX. putting
up a huge turning machine (which he had brought in the autumn from
Bristol, where he used to spend the summer) in a bedroom, for
turning patterns, grinding glasses, and turning eye-pieces, etc. At
the same time music durst not lie entirely dormant during the
summer, and my brother had frequent rehearsals at home, where Miss
FARINELLI, an Italian singer, was met by several of the principal
performers he had engaged for the winter concerts."

Finally, in 1774, he had made himself a Gregorian telescope,[10] and
had begun to view the heavens. He was then thirty-six years old.

The writer in the _European Magazine_ describes this period:

"All this time he continued his astronomical observations, and
nothing now seemed wanting to complete his felicity, but sufficient
leisure to enjoy his telesc