kept.  But the establishment was in a queer state.  The Royal Warrant under the Sign Manual was sent on August 11th.  It was understood that my occupation of office would commence on October 1st, but repairs and alterations of buildings would make it impossible for me to reside at Greenwich before the end of the year.  On Oct. 1st I went to the Observatory, and entered formally upon the office (though not residing for some time).  Oct 7th is the date of my Official Instructions.

“I had made it a condition of accepting the office that the then First Assistant should be removed, and accordingly I had the charge of seeking another.  I determined to have a man who had taken a respectable Cambridge degree.  I made enquiry first of Mr Bowstead (brother to the bishop) and Mr Steventon:  at length, consulting Mr Hopkins (a well-known private tutor at Cambridge), he recommended to me Mr Robert Main, of Queens’ College, with whom I corresponded in the month (principally) of August, and whom on August 30th I nominated to the Admiralty.  On Oct. 21st F.W.  Simms, one of the Assistants (who apparently had hoped for the office of First Assistant, for which he was quite incompetent) resigned; and on Dec. 4th I appointed in his place Mr James Glaisher, who had been at Cambridge from the beginning of 1833, and on Dec. 10th the Admiralty approved.

“During this quarter of a year I was residing at Cambridge Observatory, visiting Greenwich once a week (at least for some time), the immediate superintendence of the Observatory being placed with Mr Main.  I was however engaged in reforming the system of the Greenwich Observatory, and prepared and printed 30 skeleton forms for reductions of observations and other business.  On Dec. 14th I resigned my Professorship to the Vice-Chancellor.  But I continued the reduction of the observations, so that not a single figure was left to my successor:  the last observations were those of Halley’s Comet.  The Preface to my 1835 Cambridge Observations is dated Aug. 22nd, 1836.

“In regard to the Northumberland Telescope, I had for some time been speculating on plans of mounting and enclosing the instrument, and had corresponded with Simms, A. Biddell, Cubitt, and others on the subject.  On Apr. 24th Tulley the younger was endeavouring to adjust the object-glass.  On May 31st I plainly asked the Duke of Northumberland whether he would defray the expense of the mounting and building.  On June 4th he assented, and money was placed at a banker’s to my order.  I then proceeded in earnest:  in the autumn the building was erected, and the dome was covered before the depth of winter.  I continued in 1836 to superintend the mounting of the instrument.