September 23rd, 1848 (Saturday)

Mr Henry Sewell came to spend tomorrow here. Told us that for £40 we could get a fine telescope, which belonged to Dalton the philosopher, and which is said to have cost £200. I believe an effort is to be made somehow or other to get possession of it, though where so large an affair can be put I know not.¹

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1: John Dalton, the chemist, whose primary contribution to science was the theory of atomic weights. It is unclear whether the telescope was actually bought, but it is not listed in the inventories of the College’s goods drawn up in 1856 and 1862. See entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.