“Previous to 1836 I had begun to contemplate the attachment of Magnetic Observations to the Observatory, and had corresponded with Prof.  Christie, Prof.  Lloyd, Prof.  J. D. Forbes, and Mr Gauss on the subject.  On Jan. 12th 1836 I addressed a formal letter to the Admiralty, and on Jan. 18th received their answer that they had referred it to the Board of Visitors.  On March 25th I received authority for the expenditure of L30, and I believe that I then ordered Merz’s 2-foot magnet.  The Visitors met on Feb. 26th and after some discussion the site was chosen and the extent of ground generally defined, and on Dec. 22nd Mr Spring Rice (Lord Monteagle) as Chancellor of the Exchequer virtually effected the transfer of the ground.  But no further steps were taken in 1836.  A letter on a systematic course of magnetic observations in various parts of the world was addressed by Baron Alexander Humboldt to the Duke of Sussex, President of the Royal Society; and was referred to Prof.  Christie and me.  We reported on it on June 9th 1836, strongly recommending the adoption of the scheme.

“A plan had been proposed by the Promoters of the London and Gravesend Railway (Col.  Landman, Engineer) for carrying a railway at high level across the bottom of the Park.  On Jan. 9th I received orders from the Admiralty to examine into its possible effect in producing vibrations in the Observatory.  After much correspondence, examination of ground, &c., I fixed upon a part of the Greenwich Railway (not yet opened for traffic) near the place where the Croydon trunk line now joins it, as the place for trains to run upon, while I made observations with a telescope viewing a collimator by reflection in mercury at the distance of 500 feet.  The experiments were made on Jan. 25th, and I reported on Feb. 4th.  It was shewn that there would be some danger to the Observatory.  On Nov. 2nd Mr James Walker, Engineer, brought a model of a railway to pass by tunnel under the lower part of the Park:  apparently this scheme was not pressed.

“In addition to the routine work of the Observatory, a special set of observations were made to determine the mass of Jupiter.—­Also the Solar Eclipse of May 15th was observed at Greenwich in the manner which I had introduced at Cambridge.—­The Ordnance Zenith Sector, and the instruments for the St Helena Observatory were brought for examination.—­Much attention was given to chronometers, and various steps were taken for their improvement.—­I had some important correspondence with Mr (Sir John) Lubbock, upon the Lunar Theory generally and his proposed empirical lunar tables.  This was the first germ of the great reduction of Lunar Observations which I subsequently carried out.—­In October I was nominated on the Council of the Royal Society, having been admitted a Fellow on Feb. 18th 1836.  I was President of the Astronomical Society during this and the preceding year (1836 and 1835).