The Rev. T. W. Webb

Abstract

BY the death of the Rev. Thomas William Webb, M.A., F.R.A.S., English astronomy has lost one of its most assiduous and accomplished votaries. Mr. Webb, who had reached the age of 79 years, passed a long life as the incumbent of two obscure Welsh livings, held by him in succession. At Tretire he may be said to have laid the foundations of those astronomical tastes which took their finished and best-known shape during the later years of his life whilst he was incumbent of Hardwick, in Brecon-shire. He was a genial and right-thinking parish priest, whose highest aim was the performance of his duty. For the sake of astronomy it was well perhaps that he obtained so little ecclesiastical advancement ; for had things been otherwise it is probable that he would never have developed those scientific tastes which have made his name almost a household word. It was my privilege to make his acquaintance upwards of twenty years ago, and I look back with extreme pleasure to the many letters which have passed between us on practical matters connected with observational astronomy and the use of instruments. Whilst Mr. Webb in bygone years used to write a good deal in the current scientific magazines of the day, especially the Intellectual Observer and the Student, it was by his “Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes” that he became chiefly known in the astronomical world. This work, published in the year 1859, was designed to be a cheap popular abridgment in a modified form of Admiral Smyth's “Celestial Cycle,” which had done right good service in providing English amateurs with information as to what to look for and how to find. By 1859 Smyth's work had become both out of print and somewhat out of date, and Mr. Webb's unpretending abridgment filled at once an undoubted void. It is indeed not wholly correct to speak of Webb's “Celestial Objects” as an abridgment of Smyth's older, larger, and more expensive volume. It was this; but it was also a good deal more, for whilst it offered to the possessors of small telescopes convenient lists of objects deserving of their attention, it also supplied an enormous amount of original information connected with the sun, moon, and planets, and the use of telescopes. This information, though no doubt suggested by Admiral Smyth's style, was no mere rechauffe of other people's work, but represented the personal experience of an intensely industrious and persevering man working under great difficulties through lack of instrumental means.