est method of preparing for the
B.A. examination. Accordingly it was arranged that we should attend
the said examinations: but when we went the Questionists of that year
refused to attend. They were reported to be a weak year, and we to be
a strong one: and they were disposed to take offence at us on any
occasion. From some of the scholars of our year who sat at table with
scholars of that year I heard that they distinguished us as 'the
impudent year,' 'the annus mirabilis' &c. On this occasion they
pretended to believe that the plan of our attendance at the
Questionists' examinations had been suggested by an undergraduate, and
no explanation was of the least use. So the Tutors agreed not to press
the matter on them: and instead of it, Drinkwater, Myers, and I went
three times a week to Mr Peacock's rooms, and he set us questions. I
think that this system was also continued during the next two terms
(ending in June 1822) or part of them, but I am not certain.

"In August 1821 I copied out a M.S. on Optics, I think from Mr
Whewell: on August 24th one on the Figure of the Earth and Tides; and
at some other time one on the motion of a body round two centers of
force; both from Mr Whewell. On my scribbling paper I find--A problem
on the vibrations of a gig as depending on the horse's step (like that
of a pendulum whose support is disturbed), Maclaurin's Attractions,
Effect of separating the lenses of an achromatic object-glass
(suggested by my old telescope), Barlow's theory of numbers, and
division of the circle into 17 parts, partial differentials, theory of
eye-pieces, epicycloids, Figure of the Earth, Time of body in arc of
parabola, Problem of Sound, Tides, Refraction of Lens, including
thickness, &c., Ivory's paper on Equations, Achromatism of microscope,
Capillary Attraction, Motions of Fluids, Euler's principal axes,
Spherical pendulum, Equation b squared(d squaredy/dx squared)=(d squaredy/dt squared), barometer, Lunar
Theory well worked out, ordinary differential equations, Calculus of
Variations, Interpolations like Laplace's for Comets, Kepler's
theorem. In September I had my old telescope mounted on a short tripod
stand, and made experiments on its adjustments. I was possessed of
White's Ephemeris, and I find observations of Jupiter and Saturn in
October. I planned an engine for describing ellipses by the polar
equation A/(1 + e cos theta) and tried to make a micrometer with silk
threads converging to a point. M