Of private history: There was a longer visit than usual to Playford,
lasting till Jan. 27th.--In April he made a short excursion (of less
than a week) with his son Hubert to Monmouth, &c.--From June 14th to
July 2nd he was staying at Barrow House, near Keswick, with his son
Hubert: during this time he was much troubled with a painful
skin-irritation of his leg and back, which lasted in some degree for a
long time afterwards.--From Sept. 25th to Oct. 6th he made an
excursion with his daughter Christabel to Scarborough, Whitby, &c.,
and again spent a few days at Barrow House.

1871

"In April 1870 the Assistants had applied for an increase of salary, a
request which I had urged strongly upon the Admiralty. On Jan. 27 of
this year the Admiralty answered that, on account of Mr Childers's
illness, the consideration must be deferred to next year! The
Assistants wrote bitterly to me: and with my sanction they wrote to
the First Lord. On Jan. 31st I requested an interview with Mr Baxter
(secretary of the Admiralty), and saw him on Feb. 3rd, when I obtained
his consent to an addition of _L530_. There was still a difficulty
with the Treasury, but on June 27th the liberal scale was
allowed.--Experiments made by Mr Stone shew clearly that a local
elevation, like that of the Royal Observatory on the hill of Greenwich
Park, has no tendency to diminish the effect of railway tremors.--The
correction for level error in the Transit Circle having become
inconveniently large, a sheet of very thin paper, 1/270 inch in
thickness, was placed under the eastern Y, which was raised from its
bed for the purpose. The mean annual value of the level-error appears
to be now sensibly zero.--As the siege and war operations in Paris
seriously interfered with the observations of small planets made at
the Paris Observatory, observations of them were continued at
Greenwich throughout each entire lunation during the investment of the
city.--The new Water-Telescope has been got into working order, and
performs most satisfactorily. Observations of gamma Draconis have been
made with it, when the star passed between 20h and 17h, with some
observations for adjustment at a still more advanced time. As the
astronomical latitude of the place of observation is not known, the
bearing of these observations on the question of aberration cannot be
certainly pronounced until the autumn observations shall have been
made; but suppos