he bed of a little pond. The country
people missed the little pond, which had seemed to them an eye of Nature
reflecting heaven's blue light. They begged for the removal of the
surveyor's pile, and Mr. Airy at once changed the station.

"The established observatories of England do not step out of their
beaten path to make discoveries--these come from the amateurs. In this
respect they differ from America and Germany. The amateurs of England do
a great deal of work, they learn to know of what they and their
instruments are capable, and it is done.

"The library of Greenwich Observatory is large. The transactions of
learned societies alone fill a small room; the whole impression of the
thirty volumes of printed observations fills a wall of another room, and
the unpublished papers of the early directors make of themselves a small
manuscript library.

"October 22, 1857. We have just returned from our fourth visit to
Greenwich, like the others twenty-four hours in length. We go again
to-morrow to meet the Sabines.

"Herr Struve, the director of the Pulkova Observatory, is at Greenwich,
with his son Karl. The old gentleman is a magnificent-looking fellow,
very large and well proportioned; his great head is covered with white
hair, his features are regular and handsome. When he is introduced to
any one he thrusts both hands into the pockets of his pantaloons, and
bows. I found that the son considered this position of the hands
particularly _English_. However, the old gentleman did me the honor to
shake hands with me, and when I told him that I brought a letter to him
from a friend in America, he said, 'It is quite unnecessary, I know you
without.' He speaks very good English.

"Herr Struve's mission in England is to see if he can connect the
trigonometrical surveys of the two countries. It is quite singular that
he should visit England for this purpose, so soon after Russia and
England were at war. One of his sons was an army surgeon at the Crimea.

"Five visitors remained all night at the observatory. I slept in a
little round room and Miss S. in another, at the top of a little
jutting-out, curved building. Mrs. Airy says, 'Mr. Airy got permission
of the Board of Visitors to fit up some of the rooms as lodging-rooms.'
Mr. Airy said, 'My dear love, I did as I always do: I fitted them up
first, and then I reported to the Board that I had done it.'

"October 23. Another dinner-party at the observatory, consisting of the