held in an apartment at the back of the University Library. "It is certainly unaccountable," said the Chairman. "They should have arrived hours ago. I suppose they did get to Dover yesterday, Mr Green?" "Certainly they did," said Mr Green angrily; "two thousand of them, at 11 o'clock yesterday morning. I received a telegram last night." "And what were their movements after that?" enquired a committee man. "After that, sir, luncheon was distributed, and the entire party left Dover by the afternoon lightning express." The Chairman turned pale. "And may I ask, sir," he enquired hoarsely, "what line of railway they patronised?" "They travelled, sir," said Mr Green, "by the newly Amalgamated System of the South-Eastern and London Chatham and Dover Railways." "In that case," said the Chairman, taking a drink of water, "we are lost. They cannot arrive here before next Saturday." So the great Motion was lost. Cambridge was saved. But St Aubyn's? The Master and the Senior Tutor walked home together. "After all," said the Master, "we are no worse off than before. But the gibes of our friends will be hard to bear." "My own opinion," replied the Senior Tutor, "has always been that it is possible to take too much thought for the morrow." J. H. B. The Dinner was held this year at the Holborn Restaurant of Wednesday, April 19. The gathering was a large and pleasant one. The Secretaries are much to be congratulated on the success of the evening. The Toast List was as follows:-The Queen; The College, proposed by the Chairman, replied to by the Rt Hon. Sir John E. Gorst M.P., Sir W. Lee Warner, and Mr J. R. Tanner; The Guests, proposed by the Rt Hon. L. H. Courtney M.P., replied to by Lord Justice Rigby; The Chairman, proposed by the Rev Canon Kynaston D.D. The following is a list of those present: E. W. Airy Chairman-Rev Canon McCormick. [B. J. Airy] Rev H. R. Browne G. J. M. Burnett Rev W. D. Bushell Rt Hon L. H. Courtney Rev G. Crossley G. B. Forster R. H. Forster Members of the College who would like to receive yearly notice of the Dinner are requested to send their names to one of the Secretaries Ernest Prescott, R. H. Forster, 76, Cambridge Terrace, Members' Mansions, Victoria Street, S. W. Obituary. PHILIP THOMAS MAIN M.A. On Friday, May 5, at about 5 in the afternoon, after more than forty years of uninterrupted residence, there passed away in his rooms, A New Court, one of the best known and most loved of our academic body. Philip Thomas Main, so named after his uncles Philip Kelland of Queens' and Thomas James Main of this College, Senior Wranglers in 1834 and 1838 respectively, was born April 22 1840 at Greenwich, where his father, the Rev Robert Main of Queens', sixth Wrangler in 1834, was chief assistant at the Royal Observatory under Sir George Airy. Notices of uncles and father will be found in the Dictionary of National Biography, with lists of their mathematical and other writings. All of them were in Holy Orders. Two of them, Kelland and Robert Main, became Fellows of the Royal Society. All of them held important scientific posts for many years. Kelland was Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh from 1838 till his death on May 7, 1879. He is stated to have been "the first Englishman of entirely English education who was elected to a Chair in that University," and to have been "as a teacher unrivalled." He was, moreover, a University reformer and "took an active part in the movement which resulted in the ultimate release of the University from the control of the Town Council." The notice of him in The Times (May 10, 1879) states that he had himself been appointed by that body. His scientific treatises and memoirs are very numerous; and, besides discharging the duties of his own Professorship, he acted for some years as deputy Professor of Natural Philosophy. Thomas James Main (for whom see also Eagle XIV, 103) became in 1839 Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Naval School, Portsmouth, where he taught, acting also as chaplain of H.M.S. Excellent, until October 1873. Canon Griffin, in the notice referred to, writes as follows: "It is not too much to say that he was the originator of the present course of higher studies for officers of the navy." He was joint-author of a VOL. XX. 4 Z treatise on the Marine Steam Engine, which "has continued (1885) to be a leading book on the subject." Mr Griffin also speaks of his 'genial manners,' his kindliness and courtesy. In 1870 he entered a son, Edmund Lee Main (since deceased), under Dr Parkinson. His death took place on Dec. 28, 1885. Robert Main, his senior by ten years (born 1808), served under Airy at Greenwich from 1835 to 1860, when he became Radcliffe Observer at Oxford, a post which he held till his death May 9, 1878. Besides other astronomical works-including a treatise on Practical and Spherical Astronomy (1863), which is still one of the best on that subject-he published in 1870 a catalogue of 2386 stars, and was engaged on a fuller catalogue at the time of his death. The Dictionary of Biography tells us that he was "a fair classical scholar, and read fluently nine foreign languages." He also published various sermons. He is further described as a man of considerable conversational powers. · In 1861 no small stir had arisen at Oxford and elsewhere about the famous Essays and Reviews. And Mr Robert Main, with another man of science, George Phillips, Reader in Geology, was requested by Mr James Parker to join seven professed theologians in rebutting the supposed attack upon the faith. Mr Main contributed to the work (Replies to Essays and Reviews, 1862) a letter addressed to the publisher in which he deals with Mr C. W. Goodwin's Essay on the Mosaic cosmogony.' The volume has a preface signed 'S.O.,' who pleads 'diocesan engagements' as an excuse for not having read any of the essays which it contains. The book is further remarkable for the language its authors use with regard to men, one of whom, as younger readers may not be aware, was no less a person than the present Archbishop of Canterbury. "The only unity of purpose," says one writer, "seems to be that of a deliberate attack upon our most holy faith." Yet, on the whole, Dr Temple is let off rather lightly. Dr Goulburn speaks of "the dreadfully unsafe statements into which a very good and able man may be driven;" while Mr Robert Main seems to have the future Primate chiefly in view when he speaks of "some whose chief fault is that they are in bad company." Mr Robert Main married Mary Kelland, the sister of his friend and contemporary at Queens'. The Kellands were an old Devonshire family. Mrs Main is said to have been a person of the utmost refinement of manner and character, and to have known Greek enough to read the New Testament in the original. Philip Thomas Main was the second of three brothers, all of whom were sent to Merchant Taylors' School, then situated in Laurence Pountney Lane. Dr J. A. Hessey, the author of Sunday: its origin, history and present obligation (1861), was Head Master, and taught Classics and Hebrew. The mathematical master was the Rev J. A. L. Airey, afterwards Rector of St Helen's, Bishopsgate. Another master was John Bathurst Deane, called 'Serpent' Deane, from his book on the Worship of the Serpent, a work which is still met with in booksellers' lists and keeps up its price. Did he claim kindred with Henry Deane (or Dene), Archbishop of Canterbury, for whose life he collected materials (used by Hook), and with Richard Deane the regicide, 'major-general and general-at-sea' under the Commonwealth, whose life he wrote? "Airey," says an old pupil (Mr H. J. Sharpe), "was a splendid master, and gave us all an interest in our work which, I think, none of us ever lost." Among his pupils at St John's alone were A. Freeman and H. J. Sharpe, fifth and sixth Wranglers respectively in 1861, who both became Fellows; C H. H. Cheyne, eighteenth Wrangler in the same year, author of a Treatise on the Planetary Theory, grandson of Hartwell Horne, author of the Introduction; Philip Main in 1862; and Alfred Marshall, now Professor of Political Economy, who was second Wrangler in 1865. Main was a favourite pupil of Airey's, who said that he had an intellect like a needle.' He left school a fair classic and a good French scholar, as well as a promising mathematician. Main was entered on July 7 1858 under Mr France. His private tutor was Mr Parkinson. In 1859 he became Bell Scholar, and Scholar of the College in 1860. After taking his degree as sixth Wrangler in 1862, he was elected a Fellow in 1863 at the same time with Ludlow, Hiern, Laing,† Torry,t Sephtont and Graves. In 1852-the Natural Sciences Tripos having been established in the previous year, and the medical school beginning, * B.D. 1829. One of the best known of our ten year men.' ↑ Second, fourth, and fifth Wranglers in Main's year. Mr Torry tells me that the four never came out twice in the same order in the College examinations. |