Autobiography of Sir George Biddell AiryAiry, George Biddell
Science
Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy
Airy, George Biddell
Airy, George Biddell, 1801-1892; Astronomers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Autobiographies; Royal Greenwich Observatory
"Of private history: In January I made a short excursion in Norfolk
and Suffolk, and visited Prof. Sedgwick at Norwich. In April I paid a
short visit to Mr Courtney at Sanderstead, with my wife. On June 14th
my son Hubert was born. In September I went with my sister by
Cambridge, &c., to Luddington, where I made much enquiry concerning my
father and the family of Airy who had long been settled there. We then
visited various places in Yorkshire, and arrived at Brampton, near
Chesterfield, where Mrs Smith, my wife's mother, now resided. And
returned by Rugby. I had much correspondence with my brother and for
him about private pupils and a better church living. I complained to
the Bishop of Norwich about the mutilation of a celebrated monument in
Playford Church by the incumbent and curate."
The following extracts are from letters to his wife relating to the
above-mentioned journeys:
CLOSE, NORWICH.
_1838, Jan. 21_.
I do not know what degree of cold you may have had last night, but
here it was (I believe) colder than before--thermometer close to the
house at 3°. I have not suffered at all. However I do not intend to go
to Lowestoft.
BRAMPTON.
_1838, Sept. 30th_.
We began to think that we had seen enough of Scarborough, so we took a
chaise in the afternoon to Pickering, a small agricultural town, and
lodged in a comfortable inn there. On Wednesday morning at 8 we
started by the railroad for Whitby, in a huge carriage denominated the
Lady Hilda capable of containing 40 persons or more drawn by one
horse, or in the steep parts of the railway by two horses. The road
goes through a set of defiles of the eastern moorlands of Yorkshire
which are extremely pretty: at first woody and rich, then gradually
poorer, and at last opening on a black moor with higher moors in
sight: descending in one part by a long crooked inclined plane, the
carriage drawing up another load by its weight: through a little
tunnel: and then along a valley to Whitby. The rate of travelling was
about 10 miles an hour. Betsy declares that it was the most agreeable
travelling that she ever had.
Yesterday (Saturday) Caroline drove Betsy and Miss Barnes drove me to
Clay Cross to see the works at the great railroad tunnel there. Coming
from the north, the railroad passes up the Chesterfield valley close
by the town and continues up the same valley, till it is necessary for
it to enter the valley which runs the opposite way towards Buttersley:
the tunnel passes under the high ground between these two vallies: so
that it is in reality at the water-shed: it is to be I think more than
a mile long, and when finished 27 feet clear in height, so it is a
grand place. We saw the preparations for a blast, and heard it fired:
the ladies stopping their ears in due form.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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