imself, and entered upon his
new life with the cheerful composure and steadiness of temper which he
possessed in a remarkable degree. He was now more than 80 years old,
and the cares of office had begun to weigh heavily upon him: the
long-continued drag of the Transit of Venus work had wearied him, and
he was anxious to carry on and if possible complete his Numerical
Lunar Theory, the great work which for some years had occupied much of
his time and attention. His mental powers were still vigorous, and his
energy but little impaired: his strong constitution, his regular
habits of life, the systematic relief which he obtained by short
holiday expeditions whenever he found himself worn with work, and his
keen interest in history, poetry, classics, antiquities, engineering,
and other subjects not immediately connected with his profession, had
combined to produce this result. And in leaving office, he had no idea
of leaving off work; his resignation of office merely meant for him a
change of work. It is needless to say that his interest in the welfare
and progress of the Observatory was as keen as ever; his advice was
always at the service of his successor, and his appointment as Visitor
a year or two after his resignation gave him an official position with
regard to the Observatory which he much valued. The White House, which
was to be his home for the rest of his life, is just outside one of
the upper gates of the Park, and about a quarter of a mile from the
Observatory. Here he resided with his two unmarried daughters. The
house suited him well and he was very comfortable there: he preferred
to live in the neighbourhood with which he was so familiar and in
which he was so well known, rather than to remove to a distance. His
daily habits of life were but little altered: he worked steadily as
formerly, took his daily walk on Blackheath, made frequent visits to
Playford, and occasional expeditions to the Cumberland Lakes and
elsewhere.

The work to which he chiefly devoted himself in his retirement was the
completion of his Numerical Lunar Theory. This was a vast work,
involving the subtlest considerations of principle, very long and
elaborate mathematical investigations of a high order, and an enormous
amount of arithmetical computation. The issue of it was unfortunate:
he concluded that there was an error in some of the early work, which
vitiated the results obtained: and although the whole process was
published, and was