{"id":8520,"date":"2020-12-25T09:49:59","date_gmt":"2020-12-25T09:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/potbanks.wordpress.com\/?p=8520"},"modified":"2020-12-25T09:49:59","modified_gmt":"2020-12-25T09:49:59","slug":"a-moorlands-astronomer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/2020\/12\/25\/a-moorlands-astronomer\/","title":{"rendered":"A Moorlands astronomer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Addendum to Richard Sleigh’s A History of the Ancient Parish of Leek<\/em>, in its 1862 edition:<\/p>\n

“At Moorland House, Leek, on Christmas Day, 1888, died Mr. Abraham Kershaw Killmister, a gentleman of retired habits, and of manners indicative of nervousness. The world at large little suspected that in him was to be found an author of repute.<\/p>\n

He was the well-known ‘Tom Oakleigh’ of literary sporting celebrity, author of the \u201cOakleigh Shooting Code”; of the article on Shooting<\/em> in the \u201cEncyclopaedia Britannica\u201d; of the \u201cRod and the Gun\u201d by Professor Wilson of Edinburgh, and ‘Tom Oakleigh’ of the \u201cDalesman\u201d, a five-act play, and of various poems and literary articles, contributed to the \u201cMirror\u201d and to the \u201cSportsman\u2019s\u201d and other magazines, principally between the years 1830 and 1845. In the \u201cMirror\u201d and some other periodicals, he chiefly wrote under the signature of \u201cCymbeline.\u201d For the article in the \u201cEncyclopaedia\u201d he received from the publishers Mess\u2019rs. Black, one hundred guineas. <\/p>\n

After his death a large unfinished work on Angling was found among his papers, and several manuscripts on astronomical subjects, astronomy having of late years occupied much of his attention (as he was indeed in all respects an humble seeker after truth); and he had at considerable expense erected an observatory and furnished it with a powerful refracting telescope, having an object glass, by Dollond, of near eight-inches diameter.<\/p>\n

He often mentioned to me that his early sporting knowledge and tendencies had been much derived from the late Mr. Richard Sleigh, of Leek, a thorough sportsman of the old school, whole genial tales, and regular shooting and fishing habits, and favourite dogs, many here remember.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Addendum to Richard Sleigh’s A History of the Ancient Parish of Leek, in its 1862 edition: “At Moorland House, Leek, on Christmas Day, 1888, died Mr. Abraham Kershaw Killmister, a gentleman of retired habits, and of manners indicative of nervousness. The world at large little suspected that in him was to be found an author […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/spyders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}