From June 8th to July 17th he was at Playford.—­And again at Playford from Oct. 5th to Nov. 8th.—­On March 27th he had an attack of gout in his right foot, which continued through April and into May, causing him much inconvenience.—­He was busy with the Numerical Lunar Theory up to Sept. 25th, when he was reading the last proof-sheet received from the printers:  during this period his powers were evidently failing, and there are frequent references to errors discovered and corrected, and to uncertainties connected with points of the Theory.  But his great work on the Numerical Lunar Theory was printed in this year:  and there can be no doubt that he experienced a great feeling of relief when this was accomplished.—­He was in correspondence with Prof.  Adams as to the effect of his reduction of the Coefficient of Lunar Acceleration on the calculation of the ancient historical eclipses.—­He compiled a Paper “On the establishment of the Roman dominion in England,” which was printed in 1887.—­He wrote a notice concerning events in the life of Mr John Jackson of Rosthwaite near Keswick, a well-known guide and much-respected authority on matters relating to the Lake District.—­He also wrote a short account of the connection of the history of Mdlle de Queroualle with that of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.—­On June 4th he attended at the Annual Visitation of the Observatory.

1887

On May 9th to 11th he made a short visit to Eastbourne and the neighbourhood.—­From June 8th to July 13th he was at Playford.—­From Aug. 29th to Sept. 5th he was travelling in Dorsetshire and Wiltshire:  he went first to Weymouth, a very favourite centre for excursions with him, and afterwards visited Bridport and Lyme Regis:  then 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.