Page:Lectures on Ten British Physicists of the Nineteenth Century.djvu/124

wich Observatory, he generally worked in his office from 9 to about 2:30, then took a walk, dined at about 3:30, and afterwards slept for about an hour. In the evening he worked in the same room with his family. "His powers of abstraction were remarkable; nothing seemed to disturb him, neither noise, singing nor miscellaneous conversation. . . . With his natural love of work and with the incessant calls upon him, he would soon have broken down, had it not been for his system of regular relaxation. Two or three times a year he took a holiday, generally a short run of a week or ten days in the spring, a month in the early autumn and about three weeks in the winter." Airy did valuable work and exerted great influence; especially we may look upon him as the founder at Cambridge of the modern school of mathematical physics.