The last printed “Papers by G.B.  Airy” belong to this year.  One was the Paper before referred to “On the establishment of the Roman dominion in England”:  another was on the solution of a certain Equation:  and there were early reminiscences of the Cambridge Tripos, &c.—­In February he attended a little to a new edition of his Ipswich Lectures, but soon handed it over to Mr H.H.  Turner of the Royal Observatory.—­On May 23rd he was drawing up suggestions for the arrangement of the Seckford School, &c., at Woodbridge.—­On June 4th he attended the Visitation of the Royal Observatory, when a resolution was passed in favour of complete photography of the star-sky.

1888

From the 14th to 16th of May he made a short expedition to Bournemouth, and stopped on the way home to visit Winchester Cathedral.—­From June 27th to Aug. 3rd he was at Playford; and again from Oct. 13th to Nov. 10th.—­During the first half of the year he continued his examination of his Lunar Theory, but gradually dropped it.  There are several references in his Journal to his feelings of pain and weakness, both mental and bodily:  at the end of March he had an attack of gout in the fingers of his right hand.  During the latter part of the year he was troubled with his private accounts, as before.—­He does not appear to have been engaged on any miscellaneous matters calling for special notice in this year.  But he kept up his astronomical correspondence—­with Lockyer on the meteorite system of planetary formation; with Pritchard on the work of the Oxford University Observatory; with Adams on his Numerical Lunar Theory, &c., and with others.—­On June 2nd he attended the Visitation of the Royal Observatory.—­He amused himself occasionally with reading his favourite subjects of history and antiquities, and with looking over some of his early investigations of scientific questions.

1889

On June 5th he made a one-day’s excursion to Colchester.—­From July 2nd to 27th he was in the Cumberland Lake District, chiefly at Portinscale near Keswick.  While staying at Portinscale he was seized with a sudden giddiness and fell upon the floor:  he afterwards wrote a curious account of the visions which oppressed his brain immediately after the accident.  He returned by Solihull, where his son Osmund was residing.—­From Oct. 4th to Nov. 8th he was at Playford.  While there he drew up a short statement of his general state of health, adverting particularly to the loss of strength in his legs and failure of his walking powers.—­His health seems to have failed a good deal in this year:  on Feb. 4th he had an accidental fall, and there are several entries in his Journal of mental attacks, pains in his limbs, affection of his eye-sight, &c.—­In the early part of the year he was much engaged on the history of the Airy family, particularly on that of his father.—­In this year the White House was sold by auction by its owners, and Airy purchased it on May 24th.—­He was still in difficulties with his private accounts, but was making efforts to abandon his old and elaborate system.—­For his amusement he was chiefly engaged on Theological Notes which he was compiling:  and also on early optical investigations, &c.