buildings, but bears a memory of its former history in the great
_Sophora_ tree flourishing there.

He was soon to obtain better paid work, for in 1828 he was elected
Plumian professor, and giving up his college rooms he moved into the
Observatory, where his official career as an astronomer began. During
the following years, up to 1834, he was busy with professorial work and
his duties at the Cambridge Observatory. He began to receive public
acknowledgments of his character and his work. In 1835 he was elected a
correspondent of the French Academy. In the same year Sir Robert Peel
(p. 106) offered him a pension of 300 pounds per annum, with no terms of
any kind, and allowing it to be settled, "if I should think fit, on my
wife."

On 11th June 1835 the First Lord of the Admiralty wrote offering Airy the
office of Astronomer Royal, which was accepted. Another honour--that of
Knighthood--he declined in the same year. In 1863 the same honour was
again offered and declined with dignity, on the ground that fees of
"about 30 pounds" were demanded. Finally, in 1872 he was offered the
K.C.B. and knighted by the Queen at Osborne. In reply to the
congratulations of a friend, Airy wrote: "The real charm of these public
compliments seems to be, that they excite the sympathies and elicit the
kind expressions of private friends or of official superiors as well as
subordinates. In every way I have derived pleasure from these."

With regard to other honours, it is pleasant to discover that Airy, one
of the most accurate of men, could make minute mistakes. Thus in 1863 he
speaks (p. 254) of the academical degree of D.C.L. held by him in the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. But at Cambridge the degree in
question is known as LL.D.

It may be well to give here, irrespective of dates, some of the other
honours received by Airy.

In 1867 he (in company with Connop Thirlwall) was elected to the newly
instituted Honorary Fellowships of Trinity--a distinction which seems to
have given him especial pleasure.

In 1872 he was chosen as "Foreign Associate of the Institut de France"
(p. 297), and wrote a strongly worded letter of thanks to Elie de
Beaumont and J. B. Dumas, the Perpetual Secretaries. In the same year he
wrote (p. 299) to the Emperor of Brazil in acknowledgment of the Grand
Cross of the Rose of Brazil.

In 1851 he was President of the British Association at Ipswich. He
showed his sense of duty in a characteri