With all his merits, therefore, as an observer, the administration of Pond was, in some respects, the least satisfactory of all that the Observatory has known, and he alone of all the Astronomers Royal retired under pressure. He did not long survive his resignation, dying in September, 1836. He was buried by the side of Halley, in the churchyard at Lee. Of Pond's instruments, the Observatory retains the fine transit instrument which was constructed by Troughton at his direction, and the mural circle, designed by Maskelyne, but which Pond was the first to use. Both of these have, of course, long been obsolete, and now hang on the walls of the transit room. The small equatorial, called, after its donor, the Shuckburgh equatorial, was also added in Pond's day, and though practically never used, still remains mounted in its special dome. CHAPTER IV AIRY One hundred and sixty years from the day when Flamsteed laid the foundation stone of the Observatory, the Royal Warrant under the sign manual was issued, appointing the seventh and strongest of the Astronomers Royal, August 11, 1835. He actually entered on his office in the following October, but did not remove to the Observatory until the end of the year. GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY was born at Alnwick, in Northumberland, on July 27, 1801. His father was William Airy, of Luddington, in Lincolnshire, a collector of excise; his mother was the daughter of George Biddell, a well-to-do farmer, of Playford, near Ipswich. He was educated at the Grammar School, Colchester, and so distinguished himself there that although his father was at this time very straitened in his circumstances, it was resolved that young Airy should go to Cambridge. Here he was entered as sizar at Trinity College, and his robust, self-reliant character was seen in the promptness with which he rendered himself independent of all pecuniary help from his relatives. In 1823 he graduated as Bachelor of Arts, being Senior Wrangler and Smith's prizeman, entirely distancing all other men of his year. He had already begun to pay attention to astronomy, at first from the side of optics, to the study of which he had been very early attracted; a paper of his on the achromatism of eye-pieces and microscopes, written in 1824, being one of especial value. In 1826 he attempted to determine 'the diminution of gravity in a deep mine'--that of Dolcoath, in Cornwall. In the winter of 1823-24 he was invited to London by Mr. (afterwards Sir) James South, who took him, amongst other places, to Greenwich Observatory, and gave him his first introduction to practical astronomy. In 1826 he was appointed Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, and in 1828, Plumian Professor, with the charge of the new University Observatory. Prior to his election he had definitely told the electors that the salary proposed was not sufficient for him to undertake the responsibility of the Observatory. He followed