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One sheet with MS notes by W. H. Thompson and another with the compliments of Prof. J. Challis.

Volume of letters arranged alphabetically by correspondent, with usually no more than one letter per person, each correspondent identified at the top of the page on which the letter is mounted, in the form of an autograph book.

13 Trumpington Street, Cambridge.—Encloses a cheque for the amount of the Smith’s Prize money.

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Transcript

13 Trumpington Street
Cambridge
February 25, 1867

Dear Sir,

I have enclosed a Cheque for £22.8.3, being the amount of Smith’s Prize Money due to you, viz. one-fourth of one year’s Interest on £3850 at 2½ per cent, after deducting Income-tax at 4d for 1£, and an annual charge of £5. I shall feel obliged by your sending me an acknowledgement (stamped) of the receipt of this sum.

I am, Dear Sir,
Yours very truly
J. Challis

W. K. Clifford Esqre B.A.
Trinity College

Trinity College, Cambridge.—Sends birthday greetings. ‘I suppose you went to see Kean, and enjoyed him very much.’ Describes measures taken by the men of Trinity to observe the meteor shower. Has been for a walk with Mathison. The new Master has given an eagle (lectern) to the Chapel. Has been told (mistakenly) that the Prince of Wales is dead.

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Transcript

Coll: SS: Trin: Cantab:
Nov 17/66

My dear Papa

I wish you many many happy returns of the day, and that each one may give fairer hopes of its successors. Moreover I wish in particular that I may contribute to your happiness myself more than I have done before. I don’t know that I could wish you very much more than that I may be able to repay ever so small a part of what I owe you. So again, dear Papa, many many happy returns of the day.

I suppose you went to see Kean, and enjoyed him very much {1}. What did he play? We had great fun here looking at the meteors {2}. The Great Court was full of men who clapped and encored whenever there was a good display. The Pleiads were distinctly seen to give chase to one of the brightest, but the couldn’t catch him, and so returned to their places. Conybeare, Leeke {3}, & I, got well wrapped up and lay in respective gutters on the roof of the New Court, where we could see everything. Challis, the astronomer, thought the show was a very good one. I went for a walk with Mathison the other day; we were mutually affable. My bedmaker was surprised to see him call; she said he hadn’t done so since Mr Fitzwilliam was in the rooms, and then it was beautiful to see him with his head on that gentleman’s shoulder just as if he had been his father. “Was he a fellow-commoner?” said I. “Oh yes, sir.”—The tone of this was perfect; she hates Mathison because he dropped on to her for not being here when a certain freshman came up. The new Master has given an eagle to the Chapel for the lessons to be read from {4}. Somebody told me last night that the Prince of Wales was dead; I don’t know if it’s true {5}. With best love to dear Mama and all the little ones—as Moule {6} puts it, “with warmer love than this scrawl indicates”—believe me to be

Your very affectionate son
+W. K. Clifford.

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{1} There are no references in The Times to performances by Charles Kean during this month, but the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography records that he and his wife drew crowded houses in the provinces in September.

{2} A notable meteor shower occurred on the night of the 13th. See The Times, 12 Nov., p. 10; 15 Nov., p. 10, etc.

{3} Several Leekes were at Trinity at this time. It is unclear which one is referred to here.

{4} W. H. Thompson had been admitted as Master on 17 April. This ‘eagle’, or brass lectern, was presented to the college by Thompson and his wife. See Willis and Clark, Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, vol. ii, pp. 590-1.

{5} A telegram from St Petersburg scotching this rumour was printed in The Times on the 19th (p. 10).

{6} H. C. G. Moule.

Observatory - Returns WW's paper and will be glad to talk to him about the enclosed mathematics. The paper should not be withdrawn as WW's application of the equation to tides is as far as he knows original.

Cambridge Observatory - Accepts on behalf of the observatory WW's gift of 'the self-registering magnetic apparatus'. If the Senate authorises the expenditure for another magnetic building he sees no problem in making the observations. Since the instrument is self-registering there is no need for an additional assistant. Cost of publishing the observations could be taken from that allotted to the astronomical ones. It is a shame the observations could not be taken from Lowestoft - the most eastern point in England.

Cambridge Observatory - Has enclosed the general term of the integral but does not think it will be of much help to WW. Mrs Challis has small-pox and therefore he does not think it prudent for him to meet WW's party tomorrow.

Cambridge Observatory - Has sent WW various astronomical papers including one by him on the internal constitution of the planets [Philosophical Magazine, Vol. XXXVIII]: Results only apply if the planet is wholly solid or fluid. Number of small planets between Mars and Jupiter is 26. Not a good time to observe the nebula 51 Mesner.

Cambridge - Has sent WW his article, 'Source and Maintenance of the Sun's Heat' just published in the Philosophical Magazine, and three earlier papers containing the theories of Electricity, Galvanism, and Magnetism. Did not think WW was aware that he had 'theories which bear on the distinction between galvanism and magnetism, and the laws of the mutual action of these two kinds of Forces'. The explanations of these laws depends on the solutions of hydrodynamical problems.

Edinburgh - JDF is 'surprised with your astronomers [James Challis] speculations about the comet'. JDF is convinced it is a comet - especially since so many astronomers independently around Europe saw it more-or-less in the same orbit: 'But it is like Challis's old crotchet on the undulatory theory'. JDF is going to write up his European travels [Travels through the Alps of Savoy and other parts of the Pennine Chain with Observations on the Phenomena of Glaciers, 1843]. Adam Sedgwick expressed himself favourably to JDF regarding the glacier priority dispute between JDF and Louis Agassiz [see JDF to WW, 23 May 1842]. JDF thinks Hopkins [William Hopkins] comments may be interesting, but no more than the idea 'that the heat of the earth keeps the ice constantly detached from the sides and bottom except at the surface in winter'. All this will not move glaciers: 'it is essentially plastic and semi fluid, and this semifluidity is I am persuaded the main and almost the sole cause of its motion as I shall attempt to demonstrate in my book'.

The draft concerning Paley's Moral Philosophy carries revisions in Whewell's hand. This is accompanied by a broadsheet advertising a course of astronomical lectures by the Plumian Professor [James Challis] dated 20 Mar. 1846; a satirical election broadsheet; a leaflet about the Masons signed in print by Granville Penn at Stoke Park, Bucks. Jan. 1 1840; a facsimile of a printed copy of Friedrich Schiller's letter dated 6 Nov. 1782; a leaflet from the Académie Royale regarding a commemorative medal in honour of M. Quetelet; Dawson Turner's booklet Emblems of Saints (Jan. 1844); three printed Moral Philosophy examination questions; printed material relating to meetings of various learned societies, and other material.