Tuesday April 3, 1894

M^r Cass brought down a letter from Account. Gen. instructing me to draw the cheques. I replied next morning to Sec^y of Adm^y pointing out that this was not within my duties.The Crown lens of 28ⁱⁿ O.G. (Photogr. Posⁿ) was brought nearer to flint lens by taking off the separating ring 0.4ⁱⁿ thick on face of flint cell.

William Christie, Astronomer Royal

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RH says..... The financial issues highlighted in the previous post were clearly not solved. To confuse the issue, the Astronomer Royal was a Crown appointment, meaning that although the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, was answerable to the Admiralty, Christie, in theory, was not. The terms of his Royal Warrant, unsurprisingly, said nothing about drawing cheques.