11 



Edward Moberly also a Russia merchant living in St. Petersburg 

 and was the mother of the late Dr. George Moberly, Bishop of 

 Salisbury. 



Mr. Henry Cayley took his young family to Russia and remained 

 there for a few years. On retiring from business in 1829, he returned 

 to England and settled into residence at Blackheath. Arthur was 

 sent soon afterwards to a private school there, kept by the Rev. 

 Gr. B. F. Potticary ; and when he was fourteen he was transferred to- 

 King's College School, London. At a very early age he had begun to- 

 shew some of those preferences by which the existence of mathe- 

 matical ability is wont to reveal itself ; he had a great liking for 

 numerical calculations and he developed a great aptitude for them. 



In his new school the boy showed himself to be possessed of 

 remarkable ability : his power of grasping a new subject very rapidly 

 and of seizing its central principles was certainly unusual. An old 

 friend tells of an examination in chemistry : the subject had not been 

 studied by Cayley before, but he soon acquired sufficient knowledge- 

 to carry off the medal from the professedly chemical students, to their 

 surprise and mortification.* But it was most of all by the indications- 

 of mathematical genius that he astonished his teachers. It had been- 

 Mr. Cayley's intention to educate his son with the view of placing him 

 in his former business an intention not abandoned without reluctance. 

 The impression, however, produced upon his teachers could not lightly 

 be set aside ; and the advice of the Principal to send him to Cam- 

 bridge, where his abilities promised to secure brilliant distinction, was 

 adopted. 



Accordingly, he went to Cambridge. He was entered at Trinity 

 College on 2nd May, 1838, as a pensioner, and he began residence in the 

 succeeding October at the unusually early age of seventeen. He passed 

 through the ordinary stages in the career of a successful student of 

 mathematics. Like the other able undergraduates of his period, he 

 " coached " with William Hopkins of Peterhouse who has been 

 described as a great and stimulating teacher a description justified 

 by the high achievements of a long line of distinguished and grateful 

 pupils. 



Cayley's fame grew rapidly : and, as is the way of Cambridge 

 undergraduates, he soon was pointed out as the future Senior Wrangler 

 of the year. It is interesting to find a record of him written about 



* It may be added that he maintained his interest in chemistry throughout his 

 life, and acquired a considerable knowledge of it. When he was at Baltimore, in 

 1882, lecturing at the Johns Hopkins University by special invitation, he attended 

 Professor Remsen's lectures with a pleasure which found expression in his letters 

 home to his children in England. And on one occasion, at Professor Eemsen's 

 request, he lectured to the chemistry class on the hydrocarbon " trees " (' Brit. 

 Assoc. Report/ 1875, pp. 257305). 



