... Seriously speaking, Airy is by very much the best person
they could have chosen for the situation, and few things have given me
so much pleasure as his election." How much Whewell depended upon his
friends at the Observatory may be gathered from a letter which he
wrote to his sister on Dec. 21st, 1833. "We have lately been in alarm
here on the subject of illness. Two very near friends of mine,
Prof. and Mrs Airy, have had the scarlet fever at the same time; she
more slightly, he very severely. They are now, I am thankful to say,
doing well and recovering rapidly. You will recollect that I was
staying with them at her father's in Derbyshire in the summer. They
are, I think, two of the most admirable and delightful persons that
the world contains." And again on Dec. 20th, 1835, he wrote to his
sister Ann, "My friends--I may almost say my dearest friends
--Professor Airy and his family have left Cambridge, he being
appointed Astronomer Royal at Greenwich--to me an irreparable loss;
but I shall probably go and see how they look in their new abode."
Their close intercourse was naturally interrupted by Airy's removal to
Greenwich, but their friendly feelings and mutual respect continued
without material break till Whewell's death.
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