us to visit the observatory and spend an afternoon
with him a day or two later.

I was shown around the observatory by an assistant, while my wife
was entertained by Mrs. Airy and the daughters inside the dwelling.
The family dined as soon as the day's work was over, about the middle
of the afternoon. After the meal, we sat over a blazing fire and
discussed our impressions of London.

"What place in London interested you most?" said Airy to my wife.

"The first place I went to see was Cavendish Square."

"What was there in Cavendish Square to interest you?"

"When I was a little girl, my mother once gave me, as a birthday
present, a small volume of poems. The first verse in the book was:--

"'Little Ann and her mother were walking one day
Through London's wide city so fair;
And business obliged them to go by the way
That led them through Cavendish Square.'"

To our astonishment the Astronomer Royal at once took up the thread:--

"'And as they passed by the great house of a lord,
A beautiful chariot there came,
To take some most elegant ladies abroad,
Who straightway got into the same,'"

and went on to the end. I do not know which of the two was more
surprised: Airy, to find an American woman who was interested in his
favorite ballad, or she to find that he could repeat it by heart.
The incident was the commencement of a family friendship which has
outlived both the heads of the Airy family.

We may look back on Airy as the most commanding figure in the
astronomy of our time. He owes this position not only to his
early works in mathematical astronomy, but also to his ability as
an organizer. Before his time the working force of an observatory
generally consisted of individual observers, each of whom worked to a
greater or less extent in his own way. It is true that organization
was not unknown in such institutions. Nominally, at least, the
assistants in a national observatory were supposed to follow the
instructions of a directing head. This was especially the case
at Greenwich. Still, great dependence was placed upon the judgment
and ability of the observer himself, who was generally expected to
be a man well trained in his specialty, and able to carry on good
work without much help. From Airy's point of view, it was seen
that a large part of the work necessary to the attainment of the
traditional end of the Royal Observatory was of a kind that almost
any bright schoolbo