George Biddell Airy to Faraday   29 April 1861

Royal Observatory | Greenwich | SE | 1861 April 29

My dear Sir

Thank you for your very considerate note just received¹. I think it is not only better but right and proper that I should not appear at the R. Institution Lecture². I am conceived officially [not truly]³ to have a broad knowledge of the Anglo-Hispanic Eclipse expedition which penetrates into every observation and into the consequences of every observation. Possessing [officially] this knowledge I should appear [also officially] not as a learner but as a critic. A Dieu ne plaire! say I.

But my ladies are most anxious to hear you, and as Mrs. Airy⁴ has been talking about it earnestly for days past, I think it very likely that she has already posted a note to you. Let me state in their favour - as if they were strangers - that my wife and eldest daughter⁵ were observers of this eclipse, and that my wife was observer of the eclipse of 1842: at the same time they do not possess that consummate breadth of knowledge to which I have alluded as attaching, and peculiar, to myself. So if you can authorize my wife and three ladies to hear you, I shall be much gratified.

I am, my dear Sir, | Yours most truly | G.B. Airy

Professor Faraday | &c &c &c