A
man who is journeying in the 88th year of his pilgrimage is not likely
to throw off such a chronic malady. Indeed were I well enough to come
I am deaf as a post and half blind, and if I were with you I should
only be able to play dummy. Several years have passed away since I was
last at your Visitation and I had great joy in seeing Mrs Airy and
some lady friends at the Observatory, but I could not then attend the
dinner. At that Meeting were many faces that I knew, but strangely
altered by the rude handling of old Time, and there were many new
faces which I had never seen before at a Royal Society Meeting; but
worse than all, all the old faces were away. In vain I looked round
for Wollaston, Davy, Davies Gilbert, Barrow, Troughton, &c. &c.; and
the merry companion Admiral Smyth was also away, so that my last visit
had its sorrowful side. But why should I bother you with these old
man's mopings.

I send an old man's blessing and an old man's love to all the members
of your family; especially to Mrs Airy, the oldest and dearest of my
lady friends.

I remain, my dear Airy,
Your true-hearted old friend,
his
ADAM X SEDGWICK.
mark

P.S. Shall I ever again gaze with wonder and delight from the great
window of your Observatory.

The body of the above letter is in the handwriting of an amanuensis,
but the signature and Postscript are in Sedgwick's handwriting. (Ed.)

* * * * *

1873

"Chronographic registration having been established at the Paris
Observatory, Mr Hilgard, principal officer of the American Coast
Survey, has made use of it for determining the longitude of Harvard
from Greenwich, through Paris, Brest, and St Pierre. For this purpose
Mr Hilgard's Transit Instrument was planted in the Magnetic Court. I
understand that the result does not sensibly differ from that obtained
by Mr Gould, through Valentia and Newfoundland.--It was known to the
scientific world that several of the original thermometers,
constructed by Mr Sheepshanks (in the course of his preparation of the
National Standard of Length) by independent calibration of the bores,
and independent determination of the freezing and boiling points on
arbitrary graduations, were still preserved at the Royal Observatory.
It was lately stated to me by M. Tresca, the principal officer of the
International Metrical Commis