Mr. Langdon, station-master at Silverton, on the Great Western Railway, a self-taught astronomer, died on July 18, 1894. Mr. Langdon made in his spare hours an 8-inch silver-on-glass mirror, grinding it on a machine of his own construction. In 1872 he contributed a paper to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on "The Markings of Venus."...

THE writing of this foreword to the biography of the late Mr. Roger Langdon should have devolved upon one of the notable personages who had an admiration for him and his work, but unhappily they have all, or nearly all, passed away. Unquestionably the person best fitted for the task would have been the late Rev. H. Fox Strangways, rector of Silverton during the period when Mr. Langdon acted as station-master there. They had a very cordial liking and respect for each other, and Mr. Strangways cou

I HAVE no distinct recollection of my birth, although I believe I was a prominent actor in the performance. The very first thing, or rather, circumstance that I remember, was the birth of my sister, when I was two years and five months old. Old Nanny Holland, who did duty as midwife, nurse and housekeeper, used to allow me to go out and play with the water and dabble in the mud; then she would call me in and smack me well and call me bad names, and shut me under the stairs until my pinafore was

IN 1834 the curate-in-charge and his sister left our parish, and moved into Berkshire. Before the curate left he came to say good-bye to us. He also brought us some very useful things, which were most acceptable, for I know my mother had to struggle hard against wind and tide, as one might say, to keep us six great rollicking boys tidy, and how she did it as well as she did, with the scanty materials at her command, I really cannot conceive; but I do know that she many times went without food, s

AT the tender age of eight I was sent to work on a farm belonging to Joseph Greenham. For the princely sum of one shilling a week I had to mind sheep and pull up turnips in all winds and weathers, starting at six o'clock in the morning. Very often I was out in the pouring rain all day and would go home very wet, and then my good mother had something to do to dry, not only my wet clothes, but also those of my four brothers. And I know it took her half the night to mend and tidy all our clothes. A

SINCE Jim had compelled me to plough the ground while he slept, or otherwise idled his time, by the time I was twelve years of age I could plough a straight furrow. It was considered a crime of the deepest dye to plough a crooked one. There was a ploughing match to come off at Haselbury, and Mr. Greenham entered me on the list as a first-class boy, and Jim was entered as a first-class man; we then had to practise side by side in a field of clover. Everybody said I should win the head prize, whic

THE judge had a fleet of ships of his own trading to nearly every corner of the globe, and in the months of September and October several vessels returned from the Newfoundland fishery, laden with codfish, whalebone, sperm oil, and seal, beaver, fox, and other skins. He made me a sort of deputy-clerk, and I had to note down every article with its number and weight. This I did so much to his satisfaction that at Christmas he actually gave me a sovereign as a present over and above my wages; and a

I HAD now been in Jersey eight years and things began to get rather dead there. Work was scarce and wages very low, and if any one wanted a small job done, there were always about a dozen men ready to do it for almost nothing; and what made it so was the number of Irish pensioners. They had their pensions, and of course they would do any kind of work for less wages than any other man who had to live entirely by his labour. In fact, things were in a state of stagnation everywhere. I went across t

THE above chapters were written by my father Roger Langdon, and I, his daughter, Ellen, am continuing the story of his life. So I will begin by saying that the school kept by my mother was conducted in the same manner as were the church schools at that time. Everything was very orderly and we just had to mind our p's and q's. Our parish church and school were five miles away, so it was only possible for us to go there occasionally. We usually made the journey sitting on a trolley which father pu

ON several occasions during the early years at Silverton, my father had trouble with drunken passengers. On one occasion a certain book salesman came to the station and called for a ticket to Exeter, for which he tendered 5 d. The parliamentary fare being 7 d. , my father asked him for the other 2 d. The man began to abuse him and got on to the line, and would have been killed by an express, but father jumped down and dragged him back just in time to save both their lives. The man then struck fa

On May 1, 1871, I had a good view of the planet Venus, but I could not at first see her to my satisfaction as her light was so bright. She had more the appearance of a miniature sun than a star; but I put a diaphragm of blackened card in the eye-piece, and made a small hole through its centre with a piece of hot wire. I found this arrangement keep out to a great extent the glaring rays. I also sometimes used a slip of slightly tinted glass in front of the eye lens; this enabled me to bring the p

On January 2, 1873, there was a cloudy mark, of a semicircular shape, extending nearly across the disc, and a dark spot in the centre; the illuminated disc itself was singularly egg-shaped. Bad weather prevented me from constantly observing this planet, as I should like to have done, but on April 17, at 8 p.m., I was viewing the planet with one of Mr. Browning's excellent achromatic eye-pieces, when I saw two exceedingly bright spots on the crescent—one close to the terminator towards the easter

Dear Cousin ,— Knowing how exceedingly anxious you must be to find out all you can respecting this little planet on which I live, I take this opportunity to send you a few lines to give you some little account of it. The moon, in many particulars, is like the earth on which you dwell; and perhaps there is no better way to give you a little more information about this planet than by instituting a comparison between it and the earth. I must presume you are aware that the earth is a globe, nearly r

This comet, which last year excited so much interest, is supposed by some to be the same which appeared in the year 1737. If so, it is beyond the power of the human intellect to calculate the number of miles (millions upon millions) which it has travelled since that date; we may, however, in imagination, travel with it on one of its journeys. Starting off then, as soon as it has made its perihelion passage, we are carried in the course of about six months to such a distance that this comparative

My dear Nelly-Bly ,— According to promise I send a sketch showing the different positions of the planet Venus with regard to the earth during the past few months. I am astonished, not to say grieved, at the very great amount of ignorance and superstition which exists respecting the apparition of this planet recently as a "morning star." If you will refer to the sketch I will try and point out the various positions. June 13, 1887, Venus began to appear low down towards the western horizon as an "

Silverton , Jan. 31, 1888. Dear Bly ,— I thought I would send a sketch of the eclipse Annie and I stayed up to see. We had a very beautiful, clear night, not a cloud to be seen. The moon entered its eastern edge into the Penumbra at 8.29 and into the dark shadow at 9.30; and at 11 p.m. the moon was in the centre of the shadow or totally eclipsed, but we could still see it appearing like a large orange and we could see all the principal craters and mountains through the shadow, and I was very int