My late friend was the first person whom I knew in College (I had an introduction to him when I went up as freshman).  From the first, he desired me to consider the introduction not as entitling me to a mere formal recognition from him, but as authorizing me at all times to call on him for any assistance which I might require.  And this was fully carried out:  I referred to him in every difficulty:  I had the entire command of his rooms and library (a very important aid in following the new course of mathematics which he had been so instrumental in introducing into the University) in his occasional absences:  and in all respects I looked to him as to a parent.  All my debts to other friends in the University added together are not comparable to what I owe to the late Dean.

Latterly I need not say that I owed much to him and that I owe much to you for your kind notice of my two sons, even since the sad event which has put it out of his power to do more.

In the past summer, looking to my custom of making a visit to Cambridge in some part of the October Term, I had determined that a visit to Ely this year should not depend on the chance of being free to leave Cambridge, but that, if it should be found convenient to yourself and the Dean, the first journey should be made to Ely.  I wish that I had formed the same resolution one or two years ago.

With many thanks for your kindness, and with deep sympathy on this occasion,

        I am,
      My dear Madam,
        Yours very faithfully,
          G.B.  AIRY.

Sheepshanks was a Fellow of Trinity, in orders:  he was probably seven years older than Airy (he took his degree in 1816).  He was not one of Airy’s earliest friends, but he had a great taste and liking for astronomy, and the friendship between them when once established became very close.  He was a very staunch and fearless friend, an able and incisive writer, and remarkably energetic and diligent in astronomical investigations.  He, or his sister, Miss Sheepshanks, had a house in London, and Sheepshanks was very much in London, and busied himself extremely with the work of the Royal Observatory, that of the Board of Longitude, and miscellaneous astronomical matters.  He was most hospitable to his friends, and while Airy resided at Cambridge his house was always open to receive him on his frequent visits to town.  In the various polemical discussions on scientific matters in which Airy was engaged, Sheepshanks was an invaluable ally, and after Airy’s removal to Greenwich had more or less separated him from his Cambridge friends, Sheepshanks was still associated with him and took a keen interest in his Greenwich work.  And this continued till Sheepshanks’s death.  The warmest friendship always subsisted between the family at the Observatory and Mr and Miss Sheepshanks.