l time of a center of that region.

And to this fundamental time, the local time of the railway, as now
entering into all the concerns of life, must be adapted. A solicitor
has an appointment to meet a client by railway; a physician to a
consultation. How is this to be kept if the railway uses one time and
every other act of life another?

There is one chain of circumstances which is almost peculiar--that of
the line from New York to San Francisco. Here I would have two clocks
at every station: those on the north side all shewing San Francisco
time, and those on the south all shewing New York time. Every
traveller's watch would then be available to the end of his journey.

A system, fundamentally such as I have sketched, would give little
trouble, and may I think be adopted with advantage.

I am, Sir,
Your faithful servant,
G.B. AIRY.

_Mr Edward Barrington._

1882

He returned from Playford on Jan. 17: his other movements during the
year were as follows: from Apr. 27th to May 11th he was at Playford;
and again from August 1st to 24th. From Oct. 9th to Nov. 1st he was
travelling with his two unmarried daughters in the Lake District of
Cumberland: the journey was by Furness and Coniston to Portinscale
near Keswick; on Oct. 13th he fell and sprained his ankle, and his
excursions for the rest of the time were mainly conducted by
driving. Shortly after his return, on Nov. 11th, while walking alone
on Blackheath, he was seized with a violent attack of illness, and lay
helpless for some time before he was found and brought home: he seems
however to have recovered to a great extent in the course of a day or
two, and continued his Lunar Theory and other work as before. On June
22nd he made the following sad note, "This morning, died after a most
painful illness my much-loved daughter-in-law, Anna Airy, daughter of
Professor Listing of Goettingen, wife of my eldest son Wilfrid." In
February he wrote out his reminiscences of the village of Playford
during his boyhood.

In June he was much disturbed in mind on hearing of some important
alterations made by the Astronomer Royal in the Collimators of the
Transit Circle, and some correspondence ensued on the subject.--During
the year he had much correspondence on the subject of the subsidences
on Blackheath.

The following letter was written in reply to a gentleman who had asked
whether it could be ascertain