10, 1820) which with
some corrections and additions was afterwards printed in my
Mathematical Tracts. On Sept. 14th I bought Woodhouse's Physical
Astronomy, and this was quite an epoch in my mathematical
knowledge. First, I was compelled by the process of "changing the
independent variable" to examine severely the logic of the
Differential Calculus. Secondly, I was now able to enter on the Theory
of Perturbations, which for several years had been the desired land to
me.
"At the Fellowship Election of Oct. 1st, Sydney Walker (among other
persons) was elected Fellow. He then quitted the rooms in which he had
lived (almost the worst in the College), and I immediately took
them. They suited me well and I lived very happily in them till I was
elected Scholar. They are small rooms above the middle staircase on
the south side of Neville's Court. (Mr Peacock's rooms were on the
same staircase.) I had access to the leads on the roof of the building
from one of my windows. This was before the New Court was built: my
best window looked upon the garden of the College butler.
"I had brought to Cambridge the telescope which I had made at
Colchester, and about this time I had a stand made by a carpenter at
Cambridge: and I find repeated observations of Jupiter and Saturn made
in this October term.
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