e
Great Court.

"The first affair that I had in College was one of disappointment by
no means deserving the importance which it assumed in my thoughts. I
had been entered a Sizar, but as the list of Foundation Sizars was
full, my dinners in Hall were paid for. Some vacancies had arisen: and
as these were to be filled up in order of merit, I expected one: and
in my desire for pecuniary independence I wished for it very
earnestly. However, as in theory all of the first class were equal,
and as there were some Sizars in it senior in entrance to me, they
obtained places first: and I was not actually appointed till after the
next scholarship examination (Easter 1821). However a special
arrangement was made, allowing me (I forget whether others) to sit at
the Foundation-Sizars' table whenever any of the number was absent:
and in consequence I received practically nearly the full benefits.

"Mr Peacock, who was going out for the vacation, allowed me access to
his books. I had also (by the assistance of various Fellows, who all
treated me with great kindness, almost to a degree of respect) command
of the University Library and Trinity Library: and spent this Long
Vacation, like several others, very happily indeed.

"The only non-mathematical subjects of the next examination were The
Gospel of St Luke, Paley's Evidences, and Paley's Moral and Political
Philosophy. Thus my time was left more free to mathematics and to
general classics than last year. I now began a custom which I
maintained for some years. Generally I read mathematics in the
morning, and classics for lectures in the afternoon: but invariably I
began at 10 o'clock in the evening to read with the utmost severity
some standard classics (unconnected with the lectures) and at 11
precisely I left off and went to bed. I continued my daily
translations into Latin prose as before.

"On August 24th, 1820, Rosser, a man of my own year, engaged me as
private tutor, paying at the usual rate (_L14_ for a part of the
Vacation, and _L14_ for a term): and immediately afterwards his friend
Bedingfield did the same. This occupied two hours every day, and I
felt that I was now completely earning my own living. I never received
a penny from my friends after this time.

"I find on my scribbling-paper various words which shew that in
reading Poisson I was struggling with French words. There are also
Finite Differences and their Calculus, Figure of the Earth (force to
the center),