ABSTRACT
As the 1860s approached, Faraday’s memory deteriorated still further. Much of his writing throughout the final decade of his life is dominated by the frustration of not remembering how to end what he had begun, as in a letter of 1857 to Reverend John Barlow, who at the time was the Honorary Secretary of the Royal Institution. On 11 October 1861 Faraday addressed the following letter to the managers of the Royal Institution, who had been his employers for the past 48 years, and under whose aegis he had carried out the whole of his life’s scientific work. Michael Faraday died on 25 August 1867, sitting quietly in his armchair, at his home, a Grace and Favour house at Hampton Court given to him by Queen Victoria. He was buried in the Sandemanian plot in Highgate Cemetery under a small plain stone that records only his name and the dates of his birth and death.
