that the General "used to say to Herschel, Why does not he (meaning King George iii.) make you Duke of Slough? "Probably his sister thought the same, but the pardonable flattery created a bond between them, which she does not seem ever to have forgotten. On reaching Glasgow, Herschel found a pleasant surprise awaiting him and his friend, as new as it was unexpected. Both of them were to be honoured with the freedom of the city. Glasgow was then a town, where salmon-fishers dried their nets on that busy centre of trade, the Broomielaw, and was inhabited by not more than a tenth of its present population; but its magistrates were far-seeing men, who crowned their city with honour when they formally entered on their Burgess Boll the name of William Herschel. Their Council Records contain the following:[1]—
"The said day Dr. William Herschel, Astronomer, and General Homarseuski are unanimously admitted honorary Burgesses and Guild Brethren of this City."
An Edinburgh newspaper[2] recorded the homage thus paid to science by the merchant city of the west, but the Edinburgh Town Council, neither then nor subsequently, followed the example so honourably set by Glasgow.
