Observatory, and to take the public into his confidence. And this he
effected by articles communicated to newspapers, lectures, numerous
Papers written for scientific societies, reports, debates, and
critiques.

His strong constitution and his regular habits, both of work and
exercise, are sufficient explanation of the good health which in
general he enjoyed. Not but what he had sharp touches of illness from
time to time. At one period he suffered a good deal from an attack of
eczema, and at another from a varicose vein in his leg, and he was
occasionally troubled with severe colds. But he bore these ailments
with great patience and threw them off in course of time. He was happy
in his marriage and in his family, and such troubles and distresses as
were inevitable he accepted calmly and quietly. In his death, as in
his life, he was fortunate: he had no long or painful illness, and he
was spared the calamity of aberration of intellect, the saddest of all
visitations.



CHAPTER II.

FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS TAKING HIS B.A. DEGREE AT CAMBRIDGE.

FROM JULY 27TH 1801 TO JANUARY 18TH 1823.


George Biddell Airy was born at Alnwick in Northumberland on July 27th
1801. His father was William Airy of Luddington in Lincolnshire, the
descendant of a long line of Airys who have been traced back with a