There were many other friends, able and talented men, but these four were the chief, and it is curious to note that they were all much older than Airy.  It would seem as if Airy’s knowledge had matured in so remarkable a manner, and the original work that he produced was so brilliant and copious, that by common consent he ranked with men who were much his seniors:  and the natural gravity and decorum of his manners when quite a young man well supported the idea of an age considerably greater than was actually the case.

CHAPTER V.

AT GREENWICH OBSERVATORY—­1836 TO 1846.

1836

“Through the last quarter of 1835 I had kept everything going on at the Greenwich Observatory in the same manner in which Mr Pond had carried it on.  With the beginning of 1836 my new system began.  I had already prepared 30 printed skeleton forms (a system totally unknown to Mr Pond) which were now brought into use.  And, having seen the utility of the Copying Press in merchants’ offices, I procured one.  From this time my correspondence, public and private, is exceedingly perfect.

“At this time the dwelling house was still unconnected with the Observatory.  It had no staircase to the Octagon Room.  Four new rooms had been built for me on the western side of the dwelling house, but they were not yet habitable.  The North-east Dome ground floor was still a passage room.  The North Terrace was the official passage to the North-west Dome, where there was a miserable Equatoreal, and to the 25-foot Zenith Tube (in a square tower like a steeple, which connected the N.W.  Dome with Flamsteed’s house).  The southern boundary of the garden ran down a hollow which divides the peninsula from the site of the present Magnetic Observatory, in such a manner that the principal part of the garden was fully exposed to the public.  The Computing Room was a most pitiful little room.  There was so little room for me that I transported the principal table to a room in my house, where I conducted much of my own official business.  A large useless reflecting telescope (Ramage’s), on the plan and nearly of the size of Sir W. Herschel’s principal telescope, encumbered the centre of the Front Court.

“On Jan. 11th I addressed Mr Buck, agent of the Princess Sophia of Gloucester, Ranger of Greenwich Park, for leave to enclose a portion of the ground overlooking my garden.  This was soon granted, and I was partially delivered from the inconvenience of the public gaze.  The liberation was not complete till the Magnetic ground was enclosed in 1837.

“In the inferior departments of the Admiralty, especially in the Hydrographic Office (then represented by Captain Beaufort) with which I was principally connected, the Observatory was considered rather as a place for managing Government chronometers than as a place of science.  The preceding First Assistant (Taylor) had kept a book of letter references, and I found that out of 840 letters, 820 related to Government chronometers only.  On Jan. 17th I mentally sketched my regulations for my own share in chronometer business.  I had some correspondence with Captain Beaufort, but we could not agree, and the matter was referred to the Admiralty.  Finally arrangements were made which put the chronometer business in proper subordination to the scientific charge of the Observatory.