I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant,
G.B.  AIRY.

James Alston, Esq.

1883

From May 2nd to 29th he was at Playford.  From July 10th to 20th he was travelling in South Wales with his daughters.—­From Oct. 10th to Nov. 10th he was at Playford.—­Between Nov. 20th of this year and Jan. 4th of the year 1884, he sat several times to Mr John Collier for his portrait:  the picture was exhibited in the Academy of 1884; it is a most successful and excellent likeness.

Throughout the year he was very busy with the Numerical Lunar Theory.—­In March he was officially asked to accept the office of Visitor of the Royal Observatory, which he accepted, and in this capacity attended at the Annual Visitation on June 2nd, and addressed a Memorandum to the Visitors on the progress of his Lunar Theory.—­On March 12th he published in several newspapers a statement in opposition to the proposed Braithwaite and Buttermere Railway, which he considered would be injurious to the Lake District, in which he took so deep an interest.—­In May he communicated to “The Observatory” a statement of his objections to a Theory advanced by Mr Stone (then President of the Royal Astronomical Society) to account for the recognized inequality in the Mean Motion of the Moon.  This Theory, on a subject to which Airy had given his incessant attention for so many years, would naturally receive his careful attention and criticism, and it attracted much general notice at the time.—­In December he wrote to the Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society his opinion as to the award of the Medal of the Society.  In this letter he stated the principles which guided him as follows:  “I have always maintained that the award of the Medal ought to be guided mainly by the originality of communications:  that one advance in a new direction ought in our decision to outweigh any mass of work in a routine already established:  and that, in any case, scientific utility as distinguished from mere elegance is indispensable.”—­In July Lieut.  Pinheiro of the Brazilian Navy called with an autograph letter of introduction from the Emperor of Brazil.  The Lieutenant desired to make himself acquainted with the English system of Lighthouses and Meteorology, and Airy took much trouble in providing him with introductions through which he received every facility for the thorough accomplishment of his object.—­On Oct. 8th he forwarded to Prof.  Cayley proofs of Euclid’s Propositions I. 47 and III. 35 with the following remarks:  “I place on the other side the propositions which may be substituted (with knowledge of Euclid’s VI. book) for the two celebrated propositions of the geometrical books.  They leave on my mind no doubt whatever that they were invented as proofs by ratios, and that they were then violently expanded into cumbrous geometrical proofs.”—­On June 28th he declined to sign a memorial asking for the interment of Mr Spottiswoode in Westminster Abbey, stating as