On the north the river, the little Thames, big with its fleet, is winding around the Isle of Dogs; on the left London, always overhung with a cloud of smoke, through which St.Paul's and the Houses of Parliament peep.
"Mr.Airy was exceedingly kind to me, and seemed to take great interest in showing me around.

He appeared to be much gratified by my interest in the history of the observatory.

He is naturally a despot, and his position increases this tendency.

Sitting in his chair, the zero-point of longitude for the world, he commands not only the little knot of observers and computers around him, but when he says to London, 'It is one o'clock,' London adopts that time, and her ships start for their voyages around the globe, and continue to count their time from that moment, wherever the English flag is borne.
"It is singular what a quiet motive-power Science is, the breath of a nation's progress.
"Mr.Airy is not favorable to the multiplication of observatories.

He predicted the failure of that at Albany.