AN UNUSUAL LARGE FORMAT BOOK ON ASTRONOMY
AND THE COLLECTIONS OF HARTWELL MANOR
AEDES HARTWELLIANAE or
NOTICES OF THE MANOR AND MANSION OF HARTWELL
By Captain W.H.Smyth
1851 London edition in original boards; with an ink dedication from the author and Dr. Lee
13 full page plates, 1 in color; 55 woodcuts in text. VG+ condition.
Description: Captain W.H. Smyth AEDES HARWELLIANAE or Notices of the Manor and Mantion of HARTWELL. London:John Bowyer Nichols and Son, 1851, 10 x 12 in., 414 pp. 13 full page plates, 1 in color. 55 illustrations.
Condition: Hardbound in original blue blindstamped boards with new spine laid on (see photos). Dedication Rev. Temple Chevalier from Capt. Smyth and Dr. Lee on inside front cover along with bookplates. Corners bumped. Some very light scattered foxing, mostly on back of plates. Otherwise clean, very tightly bound, and unmarked throughout. Overall VG++ condition.
Information: An unusual book by the amateur astronomer W.H. Smyth, author of the much noted Cycle of Celestial Objects (1844) and a collector of coins and Egyptiana.The book describes his estate, his collections, his observatory, and its observations. Chapter titles include: Details Respecting the Parish and Manor of Hartwell; Locality, Geology, Proudce, and General Statistics. The Successive Lords of the Manor of Hartwell, from the Conquest to the Present Time--Peverel, De Hertewell, Luto, Hampden, and Lee; Particular Respecting Hartwell House: Its Apartments, Paintings, Library, Museum, Numismata, and Egyptian Antiquities; Origin of the Hartwell Observatory. The Transit Room; The Equatorial Tower; Mr. Epp's Meridional Observations; The Double-Stars Measured by Captain Smyth; Colours of the Same: and the Story of Gamma Virginia; Encke's Comet; The Meteorological Department. The Appendix: A Correction Respecting Sir Thomas Lee; The Letters Referred to on Page 196;The Residence of the French Royal Family at Hartwell.
Several charming plates, maps, and floor plans of the manor and the observatory make this a notable collectible, especially for those with an interest in the history of astronomy. The dedication by Smyth and Lee seems common in these volumes---since the book was published for the author, he sent out individual copies to his friends and colleagues.
Biographical Note: Admiral William Henry Smyth (1788 – 1865) was a Royal Navy officer, hydrographer, astronomer and numismatist. He is noted for his involvement in the early history of a number of learned societies, for his hydrographic charts, for his astronomical work, and for a wide range of publications and translations. While in Sicily in 1817, he met the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi in Palermo and visited his observatory; this sparked his interest in astronomy and he gave his second son (who became a noted astronomer) the name Piazzi. Smyth published some of his work in his Memoir description of the Resources, Inhabitants, and Hydrography of Sicily and its Islands (London, 1824), which was followed in 1828 by a Sketch of Sardinia. Subsequently, in 1854, he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Founder's Medal in recognition of his survey work in the Mediterranean.
Returning to England and settling at Bedford, in 1825 he fitted out a private observatory equipped with a 5.9-inch refractor telescope.[ He used this instrument to observe a variety of deep sky objects over the course of the 1830s, including double stars, star clusters and nebulae. He published his observations in 1844 in the Cycle of Celestial Objects, which earned him the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1845 and also the presidency of the society. The first volume of this work was on general astronomy, but the second volume became known as the Bedford Catalogue and contained his observations of 1,604 double stars and nebulae. It served as a standard reference work for many years afterward; no astronomer had previously made as extensive a catalogue of dim objects such as this.
Having completed his observations, he moved to Cardiff in 1839 to supervise the construction of the Bute Dock which he had designed. His observatory was dismantled and the telescope was sold to Dr John Lee, who re-erected it in a new observatory of Smyth's design at Hartwell House near the village of Stone in Buckinghamshire. Smyth moved to Stone in 1842 and, still having access to the telescope, performed a large number of additional astronomical observations from 1839 to 1859. The telescope is now in the Science Museum, London. A lunar mare was named Mare Smythii in his honour, as was Smyth Channel in the fiords of Chile and Cape Smyth in the Antarctic.
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