Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy | Page 9

and other mechanical contrivances. At home he relates that he picked up a wonderful quantity of learning from his father's books. He read and remembered much poetry from such standard authors as Milton, Pope, Gay, Gray, Swift, &c., which was destined to prove in after life an invaluable relaxation for his mind. But he also studied deeply an excellent Cyclopaedia called a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences in three volumes folio, and learned from it much about ship-building, navigation, fortification, and many other subjects.
During this period his valuable friendship with his uncle Arthur Biddell commenced. Arthur Biddell was a prosperous farmer and valuer at Playford near Ipswich. He was a well-informed and able man, of powerful and original mind, extremely kind and good-natured, and greatly respected throughout the county. In the Autobiography of George Biddell Airy he states as follows:
"I do not remember precisely when it was that I first visited my uncle Arthur Biddell. I think it was in a winter: certainly as early as the winter of 1812--13. Here I found a friend whose society I could enjoy, and I entirely appreciated and enjoyed the practical, mechanical, and at the same time speculative and enquiring talents of Arthur Biddell. He had a library which, for a person in middle life, may be called excellent, and his historical and antiquarian knowledge was not small. After spending one winter holiday with him, it easily came to pass that I spent the next summer holiday with him: and at the next winter holiday, finding that there was no precise arrangement for my movements, I secretly wrote him a letter begging him to come with a gig to fetch me home with him: he complied with my request, giving no hint to my father or mother of my letter: and from that time, one-third of every year was regularly spent with him till I went to College. How great was the influence of this on my character and education I cannot tell. It was with him that I became acquainted with the Messrs Ransome, W. Cubitt the civil engineer (afterwards Sir W. Cubitt), Bernard Barton, Thomas Clarkson (the slave-trade abolitionist), and other persons whose acquaintance I have valued highly. It was also with him that I became acquainted with the works of the best modern poets, Scott, Byron, Campbell, Hogg, and others: as also with the Waverley Novels and other works of merit."
In 1813 William Airy lost his appointment of Collector of Excise and was in consequence very much straitened in his circumstances. But there was no relaxation in the education of his children, and at the beginning of 1814 George Biddell was sent to the endowed Grammar School at Colchester, then kept by the Rev. E. Crosse, and remained there till the summer of 1819, when he went to College. The Autobiography proceeds as follows:
"I became here a respectable scholar in Latin and Greek, to the extent of accurate translation, and composition of prose Latin: in regard to Latin verses I was I think more defective than most scholars who take the same pains, but I am not much ashamed of this, for I entirely despise the system of instruction in verse composition.
"My father on some occasion had to go to London and brought back for me a pair of 12-inch globes. They were invaluable to me. The first stars which I learnt from the celestial globe were alpha Lyrae, alpha Aquilae, alpha Cygni: and to this time I involuntarily regard these stars as the birth-stars of my astronomical knowledge. Having somewhere seen a description of a Gunter's quadrant, I perceived that I could construct one by means of the globe: my father procured for me a board of the proper shape with paper pasted on it, and on this I traced the lines of the quadrant.
"My command of geometry was tolerably complete, and one way in which I frequently amused myself was by making paper models (most carefully drawn in outline) which were buttoned together without any cement or sewing. Thus I made models, not only of regular solids, regularly irregular solids, cones cut in all directions so as to shew the conic sections, and the like, but also of six-gun batteries, intrenchments and fortresses of various kinds &c.
"From various books I had learnt the construction of the steam-engine: the older forms from the Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; newer forms from modern books. The newest form however (with the sliding steam valve) I learnt from a 6-horse engine at Bawtrey's brewery (in which Mr Keeling the father of my schoolfellow had acquired a partnership). I frequently went to look at this engine, and on one occasion had the extreme felicity of examining some of its parts when it was opened for repair.
"In the mean time my education was advancing