Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy - George Biddell Airy (best novel books to read TXT) 📗

Thus on January 20th, 1830, he wrote to his intended son-in-law as follows: "I have little else to say to you than that I continue with heartfelt satisfaction to reflect on the important change about to take place in my dear daughter's situation. A father must not allow himself to dilate on such a subject: of course I feel confident that you will have no reason to repent the irrevocable step you have taken, but from the manner in which Richarda has been brought up, you will find such a helpmate in her as a man of sense and affection would wish to have, and that she is well prepared to meet the duties and trials (for such must be met with) of domestic life with a firm and cultivated mind, and the warm feelings of a kind heart. Her habits are such as by no means to lead her to expensive wishes, nor will you I trust ever find it necessary to neglect those studies and pursuits upon which your reputation and subsistence are chiefly founded, to seek for idle amusements for your companion. I must indulge no further in speaking of her, and have only at present to add that I commit in full confidence into your hands the guardianship of my daughter's happiness." And on April 5th, 1830, shortly after their marriage, he wrote to his daughter thus: "If thinking of you could supply your place amongst us you would have been with us unceasingly, for we have all of us made you the principal object of our thoughts and our talk since you left us, and I travelled with you all your journey to your present delightful home. We had all but one feeling of the purest pleasure in the prospect of the true domestic comfort to which we fully believe you to be now gone, and we rejoice that all your endearing qualities will now be employed to promote the happiness of one whom we think so worthy of them as your dear husband, who has left us in the best opinion of his good heart, as well as his enlightened and sound understanding. His late stay with us has endeared him to us all. Never did man enter into the married state from more honourable motives, or from a heart more truly seeking the genuine happiness of that state than Mr Airy, and he will, I trust, find his reward in you from all that a good wife can render to the best of husbands, and his happiness be reflected on yourself." It would be difficult to find letters of more genuine feeling and satisfaction, or more eloquently expressed, than these.

The narrative of the Autobiography will now be resumed.

"I had been disappointed two years before of an expedition to Derbyshire. I had wished still to make it, and my brother wished to go: and we determined to make it this year (1824). We were prepared with walking dresses and knapsacks. I had well considered every detail of our route, and was well provided with letters of introduction, including one to the Rev. R. Smith of Edensor. On June 29th we started by coach to Newmarket and walked through the Fens by Ramsay to Peterborough. Then by Stamford and Ketton quarries to Leicester and Derby. Here we were recognized by a Mr Calvert, who had seen me take my degree, and he invited us to breakfast, and employed himself in shewing us several manufactories, &c. to which we had been denied access when presenting ourselves unsupported. We then went to Belper with an introduction from Mr Calvert to Jedediah Strutt: saw the great cotton mills, and in the evening walked to Matlock. Up to this time the country of greatest interest was the region of the fens about Ramsay (a most remarkable district), but now began beauty of scenery. On July 9th we walked by Rowsley and Haddon Hall over the hills to Edensor, where we stayed till the 12th with Mr Smith. We next visited Hathersage, Castleton, and Marple (where I wished to see the canal aqueduct), and went by coach to Manchester, and afterwards to Liverpool. Here Dr Traill recommended us to see the Pontycyssylte Aqueduct, and we went by Chester and Wrexham to Rhuabon, saw the magnificent work, and proceeded to Llangollen. Thence by Chester and Northwich (where we descended a salt-mine) to Macclesfield. Then to the Ecton mine (of which we saw but little) through Dovedale to Ashbourn, and by coach to Derby. On July 24th to Birmingham, where we found Mr Guest, lodged in his house, and were joined by my pupil Guest. Here we were fully employed in visiting the manufactures, and then went into the iron country, where I descended a pit in the Staffordshire Main. Thence by coach to Cambridge, where I stopped to prepare for the Fellowship Examination.

"I had two pupils in this portion of the Long Vacation, Turner and Dobbs. On August 2nd my writing of Latin began regularly as before. My principal mathematics on the quires are Optics. On August 25th I made experiments on my left eye, with good measures, and on Aug. 26th ordered a cylindrical lens of Peters, a silversmith in the town, which I believe was never made. Subsequently, while at Playford, I ordered cylindrical lenses of an artist named Fuller, living at Ipswich, and these were completed in November, 1824.

"My letter to the Examiners, announcing my intention of sitting for Fellowship (which like all other such documents is preserved on my quires) was delivered on Sept 21st. The Examination took place on Sept. 22nd and the two following days. On Oct. 1st, 1824, at the usual hour of the morning, I was elected Fellow. There were elected at the same time T.B. Macaulay (afterwards Lord Macaulay), who was a year senior to me in College, and I think Field of my own year. I drew up my letter of acknowledgment to the Electors. On Oct. 2nd at 9 in the morning I was admitted Fellow with the usual ceremonies, and at 10 I called on the Electors with my letter of acknowledgment. I immediately journeyed to Derbyshire, paid a visit at Edensor, and returned by Sheffield.

"On Oct. 11th (it having been understood with Mr Higman that my engagement as Assistant Mathematical Tutor stood) the Master sent for me to appoint me and to say what was expected as duty of the office. He held out to me the prospect of ultimately succeeding to the Tutorship, and I told him that I hoped to be out of College before that time.

"About this time the 'Athenaeum,' a club of a scientific character, was established in London, and I was nominated on it, but I declined" (Oct. 14th). In this year (1824) I commenced account with a banker by placing L110 in the hands of Messrs Mortlock and Co. On Oct. 16th I walked to Bury, and after a single day's stay there returned to Cambridge.

"On Oct. 23rd, 1824,1 began my lectures as Mathematical Assistant Tutor. I lectured the Senior Sophs and Junior Sophs on Higman's side. The number of Senior Sophs was 21. Besides this I took part in the 'Examinations of the Questionists,' a series of exercises for those who were to take the Bachelor's degree in the next January. I examined in Mechanics, Newton, and Optics. I had also as private pupils Turner, Dobbs, and Cooper. I now ceased from the exercise which I had followed with such regularity for five years, namely that of daily writing Latin. In its stead I engaged a French Master (Goussel) with whom I studied French with reasonable assiduity for the three terms to June, 1825.

"Among mathematical investigations I find: Theory of the Moon's brightness, Motion of a body in an ellipse round two centres of force, Various differential equations, Numerical computation of sin pi from series, Numerical computation of sines of various arcs to 18 decimals, Curvature of surfaces in various directions, Generating functions, Problem of sound. I began in the winter a Latin Essay as competing for the Middle Bachelors' Prize, but did not proceed with it. I afterwards wished that I had followed it up: but my time was fully occupied.

"On Jan. 28th, 1825, I started for Edensor, where I paid a visit, and returned on Feb. 2nd. On Feb. 4th I wrote to Mr Clarkson, asking his advice about a profession or mode of life (the cares of life were now beginning to press me heavily, and continued to do so for several years). He replied very kindly, but his answer amounted to nothing. About the same time I had some conversation of the same kind with Mr Peacock, which was equally fruitless.

"On Feb. 4th I have investigations of the density of light near a caustic (on the theory of emissions). On Feb. 5th I finished a Paper about the defect in my eye, which was communicated to the Cambridge Philosophical Society on Feb. 21st. Mr Peacock or Mr Whewell had some time previously applied to me to write a Paper on Trigonometry for the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana, and I had been collecting some materials (especially in regard to its history) at every visit to London, where I read sometimes at the British Museum: also in the Cambridge libraries. I began this Paper (roughly) on Feb. 8th, and finished it on Mar. 3rd. The history of which I speak, by some odd management of the Editors of the Encyclopaedia, was never published. The MS. is now amongst the MSS. of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Other subjects on my quires are: Theory of musical concords, many things relating to trigonometry and trigonometrical tables, achromatic eye-pieces, equation to the surface bounding the rays that enter my left eye, experiments on percussion. Also notes on Cumberland and Wales (I had already proposed to myself to take a party of pupils in the Long Vacation to Keswick), and notes on history and geology.

"I had been in correspondence with Dr Malkin (master of Bury School), who on Feb. 8th sent a certificate for my brother William, whom I entered at Trinity on Peacock's side. On Mar. 25th I changed my rooms, quitting those on the ground-floor east side of Queen Mary's Gate for first-floor rooms in Neville's Court, south side, the easternmost rooms. In this term my lectures lasted from Apr. 18th to May 14th. Apparently I had only the Senior Sophs, 19 in number, and the same four pupils (Turner, Dobbs, Cooper, Hovenden) as in the preceding term. The only scientific subjects on which I find notes are, a Paper on the forms of the Teeth of Wheels, communicated to the Philosophical Society on May 2nd; some notes about Musical Concords, and some examination of a strange piece of Iceland Spar. On Apr. 29th I was elected to the Northern Institution (of Inverness); the first compliment that I received from an extraneous body.

"On May 14th I have a most careful examination of my money accounts, to see whether I can make an expedition with my sister into Wales. My sister came to Cambridge, and on Monday, May 23rd, 1825, we started for Wales, equipped in the lightest way for a walking expedition. We went by Birmingham to Shrewsbury: then to the Pontycyssylte Aqueduct and by various places to Bala, and thence by Llanrwst to Conway. Here the suspension bridge was under construction: the mole was made and the piers, but nothing else. Then on to Bangor, where nine chains of the suspension bridge were in place, and so to Holyhead. Then by Carnarvon to Bethgelert, ascending Snowdon by the way, and in succession by Festiniog, Dolgelly, and Aberystwyth to Hereford (the first time that I had visited it since my father left it). From thence we went by coach to London, and I went on to Cambridge on