And he also received a more popular appreciation—and most justly so. For whilst no one could have less of the arts of the ordinary popularizer about him, no one has ever given popular lectures on astronomy which more fully corresponded to the ideal of what such should be than Airy's six lectures to working men, delivered at Ipswich. And we may count the bestowal upon him of the honorary freedom of the City of London, in 1875, as one of the tokens that his services in this direction had not been unappreciated.
During the last seven years of his official career he undertook the working out of a lunar theory, and, to allow himself more leisure for its completion, he resigned his position August 15, 1881, after forty-six years of office. He was now eighty years of age, and he took up his residence at the White House, just outside Greenwich Park. He resided there till his death, more than ten years later—January 2, 1892.
Airy was succeeded in the Astronomer Royalship by the present and eighth holder of the office, W. H. M. Christie. He was born at Woolwich, in 1845, his father having been Professor Samuel Hunter Christie, F.R.S. He was educated at King's College, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating as fourth Wrangler in 1868. In 1870 he was appointed chief assistant at Greenwich, in succession to Mr. Stone, who had become her Majesty's astronomer at the Cape, and in 1881 he succeeded Airy as Astronomer Royal.
W. H. M. CHRISTIE, ASTRONOMER ROYAL.
(From a photograph by Elliott and Fry.)
During Mr. Christie's office, the two new departments of the Astrographic Chart and Double-star observations have come into being. The following buildings have been erected under his administration: the great New Observatory in the south ground, the New Altazimuth, the New Library, nearly opposite to it, the Transit Pavilion, the porter's lodge, and the Magnetic Pavilion out in the Park. Whilst in the old buildings the Astrographic dome has been added, and the Upper and Lower Computing rooms have been rebuilt and enlarged. As to the instruments, the 28-inch refractor, the astrographic twin telescope, the new altazimuth, the 26-inch and 9-inch Thompson photographic refractors, and the 30-inch reflector are all additions during the present reign. Roughly speaking, therefore, we may say that three-fourths of the present Observatory has been added during the nineteen years of the present Astronomer Royal. One exceedingly important improvement should not be overlooked. Airy observed little himself whilst at Greenwich, and had an inadequate idea of the necessity for room in a dome and breadth in a shutter-opening. With the sole exception, perhaps, of the transit circle, every instrument set up by Airy was crammed into too small a dome or looked out through too narrow an opening. The increase of shutter-opening of the newer domes may be well seen by contrasting, say, the old altazimuth or the Sheepshanks dome with that of the astrographic. This reform has had much to do with the success of later work.