Mr Pepys was slightly distressed at the suggestion that English should take the place of Latin as the language in which teaching was given, not because he did not think it necessary, but he was afraid lest the honour of the university should be affected by such a change. Whether these proposals were carried into effect then is uncertain, but the Savilian professor came into closer connection with Mr Pepys during the few years that elapsed before his death, being especially upon one occasion, made the bearer of tender thanks from the university to Mr Pepys, who had commissioned Sir Godfrey Kneller to paint Dr Wallis’ portrait for the university. The drawing was done in Dr Gregory’s house, where the reverend old man was happy and at his ease, and the picture of him is pleasant. In the list of the persons to whom rings and mourning were presented on the occasion of Mr Pepys’ death and funeral, Dr Gregory, Dr Wallis and Dr Charlett, are all inserted as recipients of the most expensive rings. Others who received tokens of regard, though not such costly ones, were Sir Cloudesly Shovel, and Sir George Rooke; Mr William Penn was honoured with a 20s. ring. In 1704 Sir Isaac Newton became President of the Royal Society, amidst general content. Prince George of Denmark was interested in astronomy, and only wanted to be shewn how he could most wisely help this science forward; and now thought Sir Isaac, if the prince gave the money, there was no reason why Flamsteed’s laborious and accurate observations of the heavens should not be published, for the help of him and all like him, who were studying what Gregory calls ‘the Celestial Physicks.’ He approached the Astronomer Royal, and after considerable difficulty, persuaded him to draw up an estimate of his observations, which was shewn to the prince. Prince George’s decision was made very rapidly, for though he was far from brilliant, (as Charles the Second wittily said, ‘I have tried Prince George sober and I have tried him drunk; and drunk or sober there is nothing in him’), he had at least one great merit, that he recognised his own limitations. Feeling that the papers before him conveyed absolutely nothing to his uninstructed mind, he appointed some members of the Royal Society to act as referees and see that the publication of Flamsteed’s _Catalogue of the Constellations_ was carried out correctly. As referees he nominated Sir Isaac, Dr Gregory, Sir Christopher Wren, Dr Arbuthnot, and the Hon. F. Robarts. Their work proved very laborious: Flamsteed was a delicate, irritable man, and Greenwich in these old coach days was a long way from London; but the referees had made up their minds to carry the business through, and, as the dispensers of the prince’s bounty, and protectors of public interest, they drew up articles binding themselves as well as Flamsteed and the printer to perform their relative obligations. So slow and fretful however was the course of this joint effort, that neither the