RED LION HOTEL, REDCAR, 1840, Sept. 7.
My first letter was closed after service at York Cathedral. As soon as I had posted it, I walked sedately twice round the cathedral, and then I found the sexton at the door, who commiserating me of my former vain applications, and having the hope of lucre before his eyes, let me in. I saw the burnt part, which looks not melancholy but unfinished. Every bit of wood is carried away clean, with scarcely a smoke-daub to mark where it has been: the building looks as if the walls were just prepared for a roof, but there are some deep dints in the pavement, shewing where large masses have fallen. The lower parts of some of the columns (to the height of 8 or 10 feet) are much scaled and cracked. The windows are scarcely touched. I also refreshed my memory of the chapter-house, which is most beautiful, and which has much of its old gilding reasonably bright, and some of its old paint quite conspicuous. And I looked again at the old crypt with its late Norman work, and at the still older crypt of the pre-existing church.
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1841
"The routine work of the Observatory in its several departments was carried on steadily during this year.—The Camera Obscura was removed from the N.W. Turret of the Great Room, to make way for the Anemometer.—In Magnetism and Meteorology the most important thing was the great magnetic storm of Sept. 29th, which revealed a new class of magnetic phenomena. It was very well observed by Mr Glaisher, and I immediately printed and circulated an account of it.—In April I reported that the Planetary Reductions were completed, and furnished estimates for the printing.—In August I applied for 18,000 copies of the great skeleton form for computing Lunar Tabular Places, which were granted.—I reported, as usual, on various Papers for the Royal Society, and was still engaged on the Cavendish Experiment.—In the University of London I attended the meeting of Dec. 8th, on the reduction of Examiners' salaries, which were extravagant.—I furnished Col. Colby with a plan of a new Sector, still used in the British Survey.—I appealed to Colby about the injury to the cistern on the Great Gable in Cumberland, by the pile raised for the Survey Signal.—On Jan. 3rd occurred a most remarkable tidal disturbance: the tide in the Thames was 5 feet too low. I endeavoured to trace it on the coasts, and had a vast amount of correspondence: but it elicited little.
"Of private history: I was a short time in Suffolk in March.—On Mar. 31st I started with my wife (whose health had suffered much) for a trip to Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea, &c. While at Swansea we received news on Apr. 24th of the deadly illness of my dear mother. We travelled by Neath and Cardiff to Bath, where I solicited a rest for my wife from my kind friend Miss Sutcliffe, and returned alone to Greenwich. My dear mother had died on the morning of the 24th. The funeral took place at Little Whelnetham (near Bury) on May 1st, where my mother was buried by the side of my father. We went to Cambridge, where my wife consulted Dr Haviland to her great advantage, and returned to Greenwich on May 7th.—On May 14th to 16th I was at Sanderstead (Rev. J. Courtney) with Whewell as one sponsor, at the christening of my daughter Hilda.—In September I went for a trip with my sister to Yorkshire and Cumberland, in the course of which we visited Dent (Sedgwick's birthplace), and paid visits to Mr Wordsworth, Miss Southey, and Miss Bristow, returning to Greenwich on the 30th Sept.—From June 15th to 19th I visited my brother at Keysoe."
The following extracts are from letters written to his wife while on the above trip in Yorkshire and Cumberland:
RED LION INN, REDCAR,
1841, Sept. 11.
We stopped at York: went to the Tavern Hotel. In the morning (Friday) went into the Cathedral. I think that it improves on acquaintance. The nave is now almost filled with scaffolding for the repair of the roof, so that it has not the bare unfinished appearance that it had when I was there last year. The tower in which the fire began seems to be a good deal repaired: there are new mullions in its windows, &c. We stopped to hear part of the service, which was not very effective.
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