EPPS, James (1773–1839)

Autograph letter signed, to John Lee (1783–1866), giving details of the packing up of an astronomical instrument to be sent to the Cape (9 July 1839)

3pp., bifolium; 188 x 231mm (folded)

A highly unusual and digressive letter, from James Epps assistant astronomer to John Lee, giving details of how to pack an instrument to be sent to the Cape of Good Hope, a matter in which Epps’ wife has the final say.

Epps was a self-taught astronomer, who became Secretary to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1830 and moved into the service of the gentleman astronomer Lee in 1838. Through the 1830s Lee had set up one of the finest private observatories in the world, at Hartwell House near Aylesbury.

The letter begins with a lengthy account of a storm at Hartwell, with descriptions of lightning, potential damage to the buildings, and the subsequent double rainbow Epps observed.

Epps then moves on to arrangements for sending an instrument to the Cape, which must be destined for Sir Thomas Maclear (1794–1879), by then ‘Astronomer Royal’ at the famous Cape observatory. Maclear kept up an extensive correspondence with Lee around this time, with Maclear sending specimens and observations, and Lee keeping Maclear up to date on developments in England and arranging for instruments to be sent, as here.

Epps writes that ‘Some anxious consultations have been held as to the propriety of packing’ the ‘famous “Instrument” for the Cape’. Epps then reports that his wife defers in these matters to the authority of ‘Mrs Phillips’ who has knowledge of sending delicate articles to the Cape:

She recommends particularly that it be packed in a tin-case & hermetically sealed which, she says, the London Confectioners & others are in the habit of doing, & exhausting the air for the purpose – Upon this recommendation & mature consideration we have thought the best way would be to send it to you – only partially packed, in order to its being finally secured according to lollipop science.

Epps goes on to discuss William Henry Smyth and the composition of star catalogues.

The exact instrument under discussion may be identifyable, as much of the Lee/Maclear correspondence has been preserved at the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies, Aylesbury.

The letter was written very shortly before Epps’ death in August 1839.

Literature:

• Allan Chapman, The Victorian Amateur Astronomer: Independent Astronomical Research in Britain 1820–1920 (Wiley, 1998)

• John McAleer, Representing Africa: Landscape, Exploration And Empire In Southern Africa, 1780–1870 (Manchester University Press, 2010)