Of private history:  “In March I visited Prof.  Sedgwick at Norwich.—­On Mar. 28th the ‘Sir Henry Pottinger’ was launched from Fairbairn’s Yard on the Isle of Dogs, where I was thrown down and dislocated my right thumb.—­From Apr. 10th to 15th I was at Playford.—­On June 10th Prof.  Hansen arrived, and stayed with me to July 4th.—­From July 6th to 10th I was visiting Dean Peacock at Ely.—­From July 23rd to 29th I was at Playford, where for the first time I lodged in my own cottage.  I had bought it some time before, and my sister had superintended alterations and the addition of a room.  I was much pleased thus to be connected with the happy scenes of my youth.—­From Aug. 10th to Oct. 11th I was with my wife and her sister Elizabeth Smith on the Continent.  We stayed for some time at Wiesbaden, as my nerves were shaken by the work on the Railway Gauge Commission, and I wanted the Wiesbaden waters.  We visited various places in Germany, and made a 10-days’ excursion among the Swiss Mountains.  At Gotha we lodged with Prof.  Hansen for three days; and it was while staying here that I heard from Prof.  Encke (on Sept. 29th) that Galle had discovered the expected planet.  We visited Gauss at Goettingen and Miss Caroline Herschel at Hannover.  We had a very bad passage from Hamburgh to London, lasting five days:  a crank-pin broke and had to be repaired:  after four days our sea-sickness had gone off, during the gale—­a valuable discovery for me, as I never afterwards feared sea-sickness.—­On Dec. 22nd I attended the celebration of the 300th anniversary of Trinity College.”

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The following extracts relating to the engines of the “Janus” are taken from letters to his wife dated from Portsmouth, Jan. 6th and 7th, 1846: 

As soon as possible we repaired to the Dock Yard and presented ourselves to the Admiral Superintendant—­Admiral Hyde Parker (not Sir Hyde Parker).  Found that the “Janus” had not arrived:  the Admiral Superintendant (who does not spare a hard word) expressing himself curiously thereon.  But he had got the proper orders from the Admiralty relating to me:  so he immediately sent for Mr Taplin, the superintendant of machinery:  and we went off to see the small engine of Lord D—­d’s construction which is working some pumps and other machinery in the yard.  It was kept at work a little longer than usual for us to see it.  And I have no hesitation in saying that it was working extremely well.  It had not been opened in any way for half a year, and not for repair or packing for a much longer time....  This morning we went to the Dock Yard, and on entering the engine house there was Shirreff, and Lord D—­d soon appeared.  The “Janus” had come to anchor at Spithead late last night, and had entered the harbour this morning.  Blowing weather on Saturday night.  We had the engine pretty well pulled to pieces, and sat contemplating her a long time.  Before this Denison had come to us.