18th received their answer that they had
referred it to the Board of Visitors. On March 25th I received
authority for the expenditure of _L30_, and I believe that I then
ordered Merz's 2-foot magnet. The Visitors met on Feb. 26th and after
some discussion the site was chosen and the extent of ground generally
defined, and on Dec. 22nd Mr Spring Rice (Lord Monteagle) as
Chancellor of the Exchequer virtually effected the transfer of the
ground. But no further steps were taken in 1836. A letter on a
systematic course of magnetic observations in various parts of the
world was addressed by Baron Alexander Humboldt to the Duke of Sussex,
President of the Royal Society; and was referred to Prof. Christie and
me. We reported on it on June 9th 1836, strongly recommending the
adoption of the scheme.
"A plan had been proposed by the Promoters of the London and Gravesend
Railway (Col. Landman, Engineer) for carrying a railway at high level
across the bottom of the Park. On Jan. 9th I received orders from the
Admiralty to examine into its possible effect in producing vibrations
in the Observatory. After much correspondence, examination of ground,
&c., I fixed upon a part of the Greenwich Railway (not yet opened for
traffic) near the place where the Croydon trunk line now joins it, as
the place for trains to run upon, while I made observations with a
telescope viewing a collimator by reflection in mercury at the
distance of 500 feet.
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