Porter writes as having declined a breakfast party with his brother James in expectation of students who have not arrived. Blames his failure to write sooner on the Cambridge weather. Tait's mural circle ought to be rubbed with oil applied by the finger. Tait is right in thinking that W.A.P. will need his assistance with a problem paper, the more so as it is rumoured that Edward John Routh will shortly be leaving. He is interrupted by a visit from William Hopkins offering the post of Astronomer Royal 'if you allow me to use the term' in New South Wales. 'They are setting up an Observatory at Sidney wh: is to perform such services in time signals, &c, as the Observatory at Greenwich. Airy [George Biddell Airy] asked Hopkins to find someone. Reasons for declining it, including a barely sufficient salary of £500 a year. [In the event the first Government Astronomer was William Scott (1825-1917) of Sidney Sussex College.] He has given his last lecture of the term, 'subject the catenary, audience [Charles Abercrombie] Smith and [Herbert Mills] Birdwood'. Account of his treatment of the subject. Extrapolation to the chain which connects him to Cambridge, with calculation that it will last a little above a year. He intends to enter at Lincoln's Inn next term and is reading hard at Blackstone. Reasons for his decision.
He hears that Tait has received an incredible number of Valentines.
William Young Clare is flourishing, reading very hard, and lecturing on the British Constitution.