A wealthy gentleman buys a telescope as he would buy a library, as an ornament to his house.
"Admiral Smyth says that no family is quite civilized unless it possesses a copy of some encyclopaedia and a telescope.

The English gentleman uses both for amusement.

If he is a man of philosophical mind he soon becomes an astronomer, or if a benevolent man he perceives that some friend in more limited circumstances might use it well, and he offers the telescope to him, or if an ostentatious man he hires some young astronomer of talent, who comes to his observatory and makes a name for him.

Then the queen confers the honor of knighthood, not upon the young man, but upon the owner of the telescope.

Sir James South was knighted for this reason.
"We have been visiting Hartwell House, an old baronial residence, now the property of Dr.Lee, a whimsical old man.
"This house was for years the residence of Louis XVIII., and his queen died here.