nd his regular habits, both of work and
exercise, are sufficient explanation of the good health which in
general he enjoyed. Not but what he had sharp touches of illness from
time to time. At one period he suffered a good deal from an attack of
eczema, and at another from a varicose vein in his leg, and he was
occasionally troubled with severe colds. But he bore these ailments
with great patience and threw them off in course of time. He was happy
in his marriage and in his family, and such troubles and distresses as
were inevitable he accepted calmly and quietly. In his death, as in
his life, he was fortunate: he had no long or painful illness, and he
was spared the calamity of aberration of intellect, the saddest of all
visitations.

CHAPTER II.

FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS TAKING HIS B.A. DEGREE AT CAMBRIDGE.

FROM JULY 27TH 1801 TO JANUARY 18TH 1823.

George Biddell Airy was born at Alnwick in Northumberland on July 27th
1801. His father was William Airy of Luddington in Lincolnshire, the
descendant of a long line of Airys who have been traced back with a
very high degree of probability to a family of that name which was
settled at Kentmere in Westmorland in the 14th century. A branch of
this family migrated to Pontefract in Yorkshire, where they seem to
have prospered for many years, but they were involved in the
consequences of the Civil Wars, and one member of the family retired
to Ousefleet in Yorkshire. His grandson removed to Luddington in
Lincolnshire, where his descendants for several generations pursued
the calling of small farmers. George Biddell Airy's mother, Ann Airy,
was the daughter of George Biddell, a well-to-do farmer in Suffolk.

William Airy, the father of George Biddell Airy, was a man of great
activity and strength, and of prudent and steady character. When a
young man he became foreman on a farm in the neighbourhood of
Luddington, and laid by his earnings in summer in order to educate
himself in winter. For a person in his rank, his education was
unusually good, in matters of science and in English literature. But
at the age of 24 he grew tired of country labour, and obtained a post
in the Excise. After serving in various Collections he was appointed
Collector of the Northumberland Collection on the 15th August 1800,
and during his service there his eldest son George Biddell Airy was
born. The time over which his service as Officer and Super