Built Observatory on Salcombe Hill in 1913 on retirement. Lived nearby (house later named Brownlands).
From NLO News: January 1994
When The World Shook
by Gerald White
Sir Henry Rider Haggard- the distinguished English novelist, came to Budleigh Salterton in the autumn of 1916 staying in a house called 'Thornsett' on the sea front. He came partly to work on a report for the Dominions Royal Commission and also to embark upon a new novel which at first lie called "The Glittering, Lady''. Haggard had returned to London from the Transvaal to become a barrister in 1879. He may have met Lockyer while the latter was editor of The Reader, but he was a friend of Kipling. to whom he showed his work, and Kipling was a friend of Lockyer. At age 61, and a sufferer from chronic bronchitis, which the sulphurous atmosphere of London aggravated, it is not strange that Haggard should move to the Devon coast. In the winter of 1916 Britain was in the grip of a severe flu epidemic.
In his diary he records for the 8 November 1916.
"Yesterday we went over to Sidmouth to lunch with the Lockyers. Sir Norman has aged a great deal since 1 last saw him and has a nervous affliction of his right hand which he declares is due to his treatment in being turned out of public service, no doubt because he had passed the age limit. He is an extraordinarily clever old rnan. brilliant indeed. 1 was seeking some astronomical information from him to help me in my romance The Glittering Lady which 1 am writing. He was full of suggestions and is going to communicate with me further. He said he thought that 1 had a good idea in this book.' also that 'intelligent romance' is of wonderful assistance to science as it turns attention to problems and excites interest in them He has an observatory near the charming house they have built there, but it is shut tip at present as all the assistants have gone off to the war. 1 should like to be an astronomer. In fact there are so many things 1 should like to be that about ten lives would be necessary to master them What little can we do in our brief span and that little alas! how imperfectly." 82
“Lockyer’s interests were extraordinarily wide. He published, with the collaboration of his daughter Winifred, Tennyson as a Student and a Poet of Nature. Healso wrote The Rules of Golf.”9