by
Dorchester to Blandford, and visited the Hod Hill, Badbury Rings, &c.:
at Wimborne he was much interested in the architecture of the church:
lastly he visited Salisbury, Old Sarum, Stonehenge, &c., and returned
to Greenwich.--From Oct. 11th to Nov. 12th he was at Playford.--During
this year he partly occupied himself with arranging his papers and
drawings, and with miscellaneous reading. But he could not withdraw
his thoughts from his Lunar Theory, and he still continued to struggle
with the difficulties of the subject, and was constantly scheming
improvements. His private accounts also now gave him much
trouble. Throughout his life he had been accustomed to keep his
accounts by double entry in very perfect order. But he now began to
make mistakes and to grow confused, and this distressed him
greatly. It never seemed to occur to him to abandon his elaborate
system of accounts, and to content himself with simple entries of
receipts and expenses. This would have been utterly opposed to his
sense of order, which was now more than ever the ruling principle of
his mind. And so he struggled with his accounts as he did with his
Lunar Theory till his powers absolutely failed. In his Journal for
this year there are various entries of mental attacks of short
duration and other ailments ascribable to his advanced age.

The last printed "Papers by G.B. Airy" belong to this year. One was
the Paper before referred to "On the establishment of the Roman
dominion in England": another was on the solution of a certain
Equation: and there were early reminiscences of the Cambridge Tripos,
&c.--In February he attended a little to a new edition of his Ipswich
Lectures, but soon handed it over to Mr H.H. Turner of the Royal
Observatory.--On May 23rd he was drawing up suggestions for the
arrangement of the Seckford School, &c., at Woodbridge.--On June 4th
he attended the Visitation of the Royal Observatory, when a resolution
was passed in favour of complete photography of the star-sky.

1888

From the 14th to 16th of May he made a short expedition to
Bournemouth, and stopped on the way home to visit Winchester
Cathedral.--From June 27th to Aug. 3rd he was at Playford; and again
from Oct. 13th to Nov. 10th.--During the first half of the year he
continued his examination of his Lunar Theory, but gradually dropped
it. There are several references in his Journal to his feelings of
pain and weakness, both m