His work was always first-rate.

There was no scamping about it.
Everything that he did was thoroughly good and honest.

His 4 1/4-inch equatorials are perfect gems; and his admirable achromatics, many of them of the largest class, are known all over the world.

Altogether, Thomas Cooke was a remarkable instance of the power of Self-Help.
Such was the story of his Life, as communicated by Mr.Nasmyth.I was afterwards enabled, through the kind assistance of his widow, Mrs.
Cooke, whom I saw at Saltburn, in Yorkshire, to add a few particulars to his biography.
"My husband," she said, "was the son of a working shoemaker at Pocklington, in the East Riding.

He was born in 1807.