'
"A lover of Nature and a close observer of her ways, as well in the
forest walk as in the vault of heaven, Mr. Airy has roamed among the
beautiful scenery of the Lake region until he is as good a mountain
guide as can be found. He has strolled beside Grassmere and ascended
Helvellyn. He knows the height of the mountain peaks, the shingles that
lie on their sides, the flowers that grow in the valleys, the mines
beneath the surface.
"At one time the Government Survey planted what is called a 'Man' on the
top of one of the hills of the Lake region. In a dry season they built
up a stone monument, right upon the bed of a little pond. The country
people missed the little pond, which had seemed to them an eye of Nature
reflecting heaven's blue light. They begged for the removal of the
surveyor's pile, and Mr. Airy at once changed the station.
"The established observatories of England do not step out of their
beaten path to make discoveries--these come from the amateurs. In this
respect they differ from America and Germany. The amateurs of England do
a great deal of work, they learn to know of what they and their
instruments are capable, and it is done.
"The library of Greenwich Observatory is large. The transactions of
learned societies alone fill a small room; the whole impression of the
thirty volumes of printed observations fills a wall of another room, and
the unpublished papers of the early directors make of themselves a small
manuscript library.
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