My first letter was closed after service at York Cathedral. As soon as I had posted it, I walked sedately twice round the cathedral, and then I found the sexton at the door, who commiserating me of my former vain applications, and having the hope of lucre before his eyes, let me in. I saw the burnt part, which looks not melancholy but unfinished. Every bit of wood is carried away clean, with scarcely a smoke-daub to mark where it has been: the building looks as if the walls were just prepared for a roof, but there are some deep dints in the pavement, shewing where large masses have fallen. The lower parts of some of the columns (to the height of 8 or 10 feet) are much scaled and cracked. The windows are scarcely touched. I also refreshed my memory of the chapter-house, which is most beautiful, and which has much of its old gilding reasonably bright, and some of its old paint quite conspicuous. And I looked again at the old crypt with its late Norman work, and at the still older crypt of the pre-existing church. * * * * * 1841 "The routine work of the Observatory in its several departments was carried on steadily during this year.--The Camera Obscura was removed from the N.W. Turret of the Great Room, to make way for the Anemometer.--In Magnetism and Meteorology the most important thing was the great magnetic storm of Sept. 29th, which revealed a new class of magnetic phenomena. It was very well observed by Mr Glaisher, and I immediately printed and circulated an account of it.--In April I reported that the Planetary Reductions were completed, and furnished estimates for the printing.--In August I applied for 18,000 copies of the great skeleton form for computing Lunar Tabular Places, which were granted.--I reported, as usual, on various Papers for the Royal Society, and was still engaged on the Cavendish Experiment.--In the University of London I attended the meeting of Dec. 8th, on the reduction of Examiners' salaries, which were extravagant.--I furnished Col. Colby with a plan of a new Sector, still used in the British Survey.--I appealed to Colby about the injury to the cistern on the Great Gable in Cumberland, by the pile raised for the Survey Signal.--On Jan. 3rd occurred a most remarkable tidal disturbance: the tide in the Thames was 5 feet too low. I endeavoured to trace it on the coasts, and had a vast amount of correspondence: but it elicited little.