Chapter VI: LIFE IN HANOVER—continued (2)

But her claims to our gratitude end not here; as an original observer she demands, and I am sure she has, our unfeigned thanks. Occasionally her immediate attendance during the observations could be dispensed with. Did she pass the night in repose? No such thing: wherever her brother was, there you were sure to find her. A sweeper planted on the lawn became her object of amusement; but her amusements were of the higher order, and to them we stand indebted for the discovery of the comet of 1786, of the comet of 1788, of the comet of 1791, of the comet of 1793, and of the comet of 1795, since rendered familiar to us by the remarkable discovery of Encke. Many also of the nebulæ contained in Sir W. Herschel’s catalogues were detected by her during these hours of enjoyment. Indeed, in looking at the joint labours of these extraordinary personages, we scarcely know whether most to admire the intellectual power of the brother, or the unconquerable industry of the sister.

In the year 1797 she presented to the Royal Society a Catalogue of 560 stars taken from Flamsteed’s observations, and not inserted in the British Catalogue, together with a collection of errata that should be noticed in the same volume.

Shortly after the death of her brother, Miss Herschel returned to Hanover. Unwilling, however, to relinquish her astronomical labours whilst anything useful presented itself, she undertook and completed the laborious reduction of the places of 2,500 nebulæ, to the 1st of January, 1800, presenting in one view the results of all Sir William Herschel’s observations on those bodies, thus bringing to a close half a century spent in astronomical labour.

For this more immediately, and to mark their estimation of services rendered during a whole life to astronomy, your Council resolved to confer on her the distinction of a medal of this Society. The peculiarity of our President’s situation, however, and the earnest manner in which the feelings naturally arising from it were urged when the subject was first brought forward, caused your Council to pause,—and waive on that occasion the actual passing their proposed vote. The discussion was, however, renewed on Monday last, and, although there was every disposition to meet the President’s wishes, still under a conviction that the actual doing so would have been a dereliction of public duty, it was

Resolved unanimously, “That a Gold Medal of this Society be given to Miss Caroline Herschel, for her recent reduction, to January, 1800, of the Nebulæ discovered by her illustrious brother, which may be considered as the completion of a series of exertions probably unparalleled either in magnitude or importance in the annals of astronomical labour.” This vote I am sure every one whom I have the honour to address will most heartily confirm.

Mr. Herschel, in the name of the Astronomical Society of London, I present this medal to your illustrious aunt. In transmitting it to her, assure her that since the foundation of this Society, no one has been adjudged which has been earned by services such as hers. Convey to her our unfeigned regret that she is not resident amongst us; and join to it our wishes, nay our prayers, that as her former days have been glorious, so her future may be happy.[37]

Extract from the Report of the Council of the Astronomical Society to the Annual Meeting, Feb. 13, 1835.[38]

“Your Council has no small pleasure in recommending that the names of two ladies, distinguished in different walks of astronomy, be placed on the list of honorary members. On the propriety of such a step, in an astronomical point of view, there can be but one voice; and your Council is of opinion that the time is gone by when either feeling or prejudice, by whichever name it may be proper to call it, should be allowed to interfere with the payment of a well-earned tribute of respect. Your Council has hitherto felt that, whatever might be its own sentiment on the subject, or however able and willing it might be to defend such a measure, it had no right to place the name of a lady in a position the propriety of which might be contested, though upon what it might consider narrow grounds and false principles. But your Council has no fear that such a difference could now take place between any men whose opinion could avail to guide that of society at large; and, abandoning compliment on the one hand, and false delicacy on the other, submits, that while the tests of astronomical merit should in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to those of a man, the sex of the former should no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acknowledgment which might be held due to the latter. And your Council therefore recommends this meeting to add to the list of honorary members the names of Miss Caroline Herschel and Mrs. Somerville, of whose astronomical knowledge, and of the utility of the ends to which it has been applied, it is not necessary to recount the proofs....”[39]

[Sidenote: 1828. _An Hon. Member of the R. A. Society._]

_May 28th, 1828._

DEAR AUNT,—

... Before this reaches you, you will have got it [the medal]. Pray let me be well understood on one point. It was none of my doings. I resisted strenuously. Indeed, being in the situation I actually hold,[40] I could do no otherwise. The Society have done _well_. I think they might have done _better_, but my voice was neither asked nor listened to.

I ought to mention that it became a matter of discussion at the _Royal_ Society whether one of the Royal medals for the year should not be adjudged to you, but the rule limiting the time within which those medals must be granted being precise, it could not be done without a violation of principle.

I have sent by Mr. G. a few copies of a work of mine on Light, for you to distribute. I shall by the next opportunity (_possibly by this_) send some copies of a third catalogue of double stars, completing the first 1,000. The nebulæ are advancing rapidly; I have got about 1,500 re-observed.

Your affectionate nephew,
J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

_June 3, 1828._

MY DEAREST NEPHEW,—

* * * * *

And I must once more repeat my thanks to you (and perhaps to Mr. South) for thinking so well of me as to exert yourselves for having the great and undeserved and unexpected honour of a medal bestowed on me....

Here I was interrupted, and all along of the medal; for my friends are all coming to congratulate me, and leave me no time to think of what to say of myself; but I will soon write again, and for the present will only beg that you (or Miss Baldwin, for I dare say she knows,) will give me the history of the medal, such as whose head it is which is on the one side? (I know who it is like very well) and if the impression is to be permanent?

Next, I wish to know if you, or the Royal Society, or the Observatory at Greenwich (the latter I think must be) are in communication with the Imperial astronomer Littrow? If you have seen any of the publications which are yearly printed at the expense of the Emperor, I could wish, if it is not too much trouble to you, to know what you think of the work; because Count Rupfstein, Chargé d’Affaires, sent me the copy (which was to go to Göttingen) to look at, and since then he wants my opinion about it. And I know no more about it than that it is a book printed on fine paper, large folio, of 195 pages, with seven plates of the New Observatory made out of the old one, built at the top of the seventh story of the University at Vienna, a description of the store of instruments, thirty-five articles including rules, two spirit-levels and a case of drawing instruments; tables of precession, aberration, and nutation of ninety-four of the principal stars for the beginning of the year 1835; but I forgot the rest; but so much I remember, that the whole book is filled with these ninety-four stars, of which I cannot comprehend the use, but I say nothing about it, and _hum_ and _ha_ when the good man begins to talk about it. Dear nephew, adieu!

I am, your affectionate aunt,
CAR. HERSCHEL.

[Sidenote: 1828. _Thanks for Bracelets._]

I have but just time to thank my dear Lady Herschel, in the first place of giving me the great pleasure of seeing her own handwriting once more, which to me continues much plainer than all the beautiful new-fashioned Italian hands. Secondly, I return my best thanks for the beautiful bracelets; I am going to let them be admired this evening, as I am obliged (though very unwell) to go to a tea-party, and it will be no small trouble to me to make myself fine enough for not disgracing your present.

When next I write I hope I shall not be hurried so, and be able to tell you how it goes here at Hanover. Last week I heard five songs by Madame Catalani at the theatre here; but of this, more in my next.

With many compliments to Miss B.,
Believe me, your most affectionate sister,
C. HERSCHEL.

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

_June 23, 1828._

DEAREST NEPHEW,—

I have but just time to write a few lines to accompany the Journals Nos. II. and III., therefore I must beg you to excuse the unconnected manner in which I am writing, for it must require some time before I, and many a one beside me, will recover from the fright we were put in on the 21st, at three o’clock in the afternoon, by a thunderstorm, accompanied with a shower of hail of such an uncommon size as weighing three quarters of a pound; some speak of still larger. I, of course, could only judge of them at a distance by the look, as my carpet was covered by them of all sizes and shapes; I noticed one in particular of the form of a bottle of india-rubber (as it looks before the neck is cut off), but was at the time incapable of going near enough, for I was obliged to keep out of the direction where they entered, forcing the fragments of glass to my sofa (where I was just going to take my solitary dinner) at the opposite end of the room, which is twenty-one feet distant from the window. The houses look deplorable, and the streets are still glittering with powdered glass. Expresses were sent instantly by the magistrates in all directions to the neighbouring towns and glass-houses for workmen and materials. I have been fortunate enough to get my lodging-room mended after lying only two nights without anything but a shutter.

Our gardens and country houses about Hanover have had the same fate. This happened the day before a _Volks Fest_, which the Hanoverian Bürgers keep for three days yearly, and for which all preparations were made, and is now by many kept with a heavy heart.

But I must not lose this opportunity of mentioning what I forgot in my last, which is to beg you will (when I am no more) take my medal under your protection, and give it a place among those you have of your father’s and your own. I will take care that it shall be delivered to you along with those books which I keep yet as companions, though it is seldom I can look into them, for most of my time I am obliged to waste in lying on the sofa, where I try to forget myself by reading nonsense, over which I soon go to sleep.

I have the two dullest months before me, for the plays and concerts do not begin again till autumn; all families are either gone to the baths or at their villas, &c. My friends are all some dozen years younger than myself, and I cannot always, or but seldom, accept their invitations. Hauptmann Müller took twice tea with me since Christmas. He heard from Encke that a great astronomical meeting was to take place at Berlin, to which Mr. South had been invited; if there should be any truth in this, and that you and Mr. South were _inseparables_, I might hope to see you once more; but I must not think of anything at the distance, agitations I cannot bear any longer, I only exist by attempting to be indifferent about all human events, and hardly anything can yet give me pleasure but to hear that you, my dear nephew, and those who are dear to you, are well and happy.

Yours very affectionately,
C. HERSCHEL.

[Sidenote: 1828. _About the Medal._]

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

_Aug. 21, 1828._

MY DEAR NEPHEW,—

* * * * *

What you tell me in the short note dated May 24th, which accompanied the three copies of my Index, concerning the medal, has completely put me out of humour with the same; for to say the truth, I felt from the first more shocked than gratified by that singular distinction, for I know too well how dangerous it is for women to draw too much notice on themselves. And the little pleasure I felt at the receipt of the few lines by your hands, was entirely owing to the belief that what was done was both with your approbation and according to your recommendation. Throughout my long-spent life I have not been used or had any desire of having public honours bestowed on me; and now I have but one wish, that I may take _your_ good opinion with me into my grave.

I have no time or inclination to think much on this subject, else I could say a great deal about the _clumsy speech_ of the V. P. Whoever says _too much of me_ says _too little of your father_! and only can cause me uneasiness.

Mr. South I have seen only twice, or perhaps three times, and that was in yours and your dear father’s presence, and to all conversation between you and Mr. South I could only be a listener, and, seeing you so well agree together I congratulated myself on your having found a friend possessing much knowledge of what passes in common life, of which a young and deep mathematician and philosopher has had no time of laying in a great stock.

I heard you would make a visit to Struve at Dorpat this summer together, and I concluded I should then have had a call on the way home. But on that account I feel now relieved from the painful prospect of a final parting from you once more, though it will cost me many melancholy hours to bring that to paper which I yet wish for you to know. But I am too much destroyed at present to explain myself any further, and will only say that by the Michaelmas messenger I will send every scrap of paper which I have yet kept solely for my amusement and for assisting my memory. You may look them over at some leisure [time] and then destroy them; for I go not one night to bed but thinking it may be the last of my life.... I have a numerous and valuable acquaintance, but I keep all my difficulties to myself, for I was ever careful not to injure a relation, or one with whom I am connected, in the opinion of others, by saying what I think of them.

I must prepare to pay a visit at the villa of a friend of mine where I have twice this summer refused an invitation.

So, God bless you, my dearest nephew, and be assured of my affectionate regard.

C. HERSCHEL.

[Sidenote: 1828. _On her Diary._]

FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL.

LONDON, _Dec. 9, 1828_.

MY DEAR AUNT,—

I received your most valuable diary and all the papers you sent me by Mr. Goltermann quite safe, and I most sincerely thank you for them. You speak of “exposing yourself” by presenting them to me, but I am so far from considering it in that light, that I feel proud to possess them, and if anything could increase the regard and esteem I entertain for their writer, it would have been their perusal. Your promised Christmas “scraps and lucubrations” will not be less welcome.

The Journals also came safe and well to hand, but in the _series_ you have sent me I cannot find that for December, 1827, which prevents my binding up the set. If you can procure this and enclose it with the next, I shall be very glad.

I trust to my cousin Mary for telling you all the news of family matters. Astronomy goes on pretty well. My sweeps accumulate. I am very sorry that anything I said should have put you out of humour with the medal, which was a well-merited distinction, and so far as the Astronomical Society is concerned, most honourably conferred. All voices are agreed on that, and on the propriety of the thing, so pray don’t suffer yourself to be put out of conceit with it by my nonsense, which after all only went to the manner, not the matter. Our friend S. means well, but wants discretion.

* * * * *

J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL.

26, LOWER PHILLIMORE PLACE,
_Jan. 14, 1829_.

MY DEAR AUNT,—

I received your two letters at once, and I cannot enough thank you for the kind consideration which prompted your offer, for I will not yet call it your gift, as I cannot really consent to such a robbery. If you are bent on giving me something truly valuable—infinitely more so than money, which (though I am not rich, and am now less so by some annual hundreds than I was, and am about _voluntarily_[41] to incur a still further diminution of income) yet, thank God, I am in want of nothing and would rather spare to you than let you spare to me. But if you want to give me what I shall really prize highly, let it be your portrait in oils of the size of my father’s. Let me send back the money, and employ part of it in engaging a good Hanoverian artist to paint it. You often tell me your time hangs heavy, so here I am furnishing you with a refuge from _ennui_, and when you know how much pleasure it will give me to see your likeness hanging by my father’s, and that you can without inconvenience or difficulty (and _now_ without expense) do it, I entreat you not to refuse. I know what you will urge against it, but you undervalue yourself and your own merits so much that I will not allow it any weight.

My mother is ill with the gout, but I hope it is not going to be a severe fit, as she is already on the mend.

Your affectionate nephew,
J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

[Sidenote: 1829. _On her Nephew’s marriage._]

MISS HERSCHEL TO LADY HERSCHEL.

_March 3, 1829._

MY DEAR LADY HERSCHEL,—

I long to congratulate you on the happy occasion of seeing your dear son so happily settled, but am almost afraid your late illness ... may have prevented you from being present at the performance of the ceremony on which the future happiness of my dear nephew is so much depending.

I must beg you will thank Miss B. for sparing me so much of her time by her circumstantial accounts of the interesting event, and hope she will continue to write, though I am not able to answer punctually, for I am not free from pain for one hour out of the twenty-four, and so it has been for a long time past with me. N.B.—She mentions my nephew having written me a letter informing me of his future happiness, but such I have not received, and perhaps he may only have intended it, or it is lost....

The following hint is only to you as a dear sister, for as such I now know you:—

All I am possessed of is looked upon as their own, when I am gone; the disposal of my brother’s picture is even denied me—it hangs in Mrs. H.’s drawing-room, where a set of old women play cards under it on her club day....

I have no great matters to leave, a few articles of furniture which I had the trouble to provide myself with (though I paid for furnished lodgings), would not produce a capital if sold. It is only pictures, books, telescopes, globes, &c., I regret should come into hands of those who know not the value of them; but Miss Beckedorff will take my sweeper under her protection; but enough of this.... I hope, above all, to have soon the pleasure to hear that you will hold out with me now that we are entering on our eightieth year.

But as long as God pleases I shall remain

Your most affectionate sister,
C. HERSCHEL.

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL, ESQ.

_March 3, 1829._

MY DEAREST NEPHEW,—

I have spent four days in vain endeavours to gain composure enough to give you an idea of the joyful sensation Miss B.’s (and your P.S.) letter of February 5th has caused me. But I can at this present moment find no words which would better express my happiness than those which escaped in exclamation from my lips, according to Simeon. See St. Luke, cap. ii., v. 29: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace!”

I have now some hopes of passing the few remainder of my days in as much comfort as the separation from the land where I spent the greatest portion of my life, and from all those which are most dear to me, can admit. For from the description Miss B. has given me of the dear young lady of your choice, I am confident my dear nephew’s future happiness is now established.

I beg you will give my love to your dear lady, and best regards to all your new connections where they are due in the best terms you can think of, for I am at present too unwell for writing all I could wish to say.

I have suffered much during this severe winter, and have not been able to leave my habitation above three or four times for the last three months, and feel, moreover, much fatigued by sitting eight times within the last ten days to Professor Tielemann for having my picture taken, which he did at my apartment, and now he has taken it home to finish. You will receive it with the Easter messenger, but I must send it without frame.... I must conclude, for I wish to say a few words to your dear mother. It is now between eleven and twelve, and perhaps you are at this very moment receiving the blessing of Dr. Jennings, in which I most fervently join by saying, “God bless you both!”

Your happy and affectionate aunt,
CAR. HERSCHEL.

[Sidenote: 1829. _Her Portrait._]

TO THE SAME.

_March 30, 1829._

DEAREST NEPHEW,—

I have received my picture; by the enclosed card you will see the name of the artist.... Whatever you may think about my looking so young, I cannot help; for two of the days I was sitting to him, I received the agreeable news from England—one day Lady H.’s likeness was thrown in my lap (Mr. Tielemann taking it out of the box), and four days after, the account of your approaching happiness arrived. No wonder I became a dozen years younger all at once. I was sitting about seven hours in so many days in my own apartments; but there is but one voice, that the picture looks life itself.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1829. _Letters._]

TO LADY HERSCHEL.

_Nov. 16, 1829._

* * * * *

I was unwilling to be troublesome with a repetition of the detail of my infirmities, to which I have of late to add cramps and rheumatic complaints, which rob me of many hours’ sleep and the usual nimbleness in walking, which has hitherto gained me the admiration of all who know me; but the good folks are not aware of the arts I make use of, which consist in never leaving my rooms in the daytime, except I am able to trip it along as if nothing were the matter.

I am glad you are removed again to Kensington, where you are within a few hours’ reach of all who are dear to you (a blessing I never enjoyed throughout all the years of my long life). But I must get in another strain; only when I am writing to you (in particular) I cannot help comparing the country in which I have lived so long, with this in which I must end my days, and which is totally changed since I left it, and not one alive that I knew formerly, except my dear Mrs. Beckedorff; through her means I have, however, been introduced to many valuable ladies of rank and amiable qualities, but to keep up their acquaintance I am obliged to sacrifice my ease and required quiet, which I have still vanity enough to do sometimes.

A fortnight ago I paid my respects to the Landgräfin of Hesse-Homburg (who looks younger and handsomer than when we saw her as a bride at Slough the day before she left Windsor); it was by her desire I made the visit, and I was honoured with a salute at parting, by way of showing we were friends (as she was pleased to say), and a desire to repeat my visit soon.

... I wish also to know on what subject the late Alex. Stewart may have wrote, for that he was an author I know, but I never saw any of his works and might most likely not have understood them, for you know I had no time to read anything for my improvement, but was obliged to be poring for ever over astronomical tables and catalogues, &c.

Another thing I wish Miss B. to inform me of. The 30th November the Royal Society opens with choosing their President and Council; I wish for a list of their names, and likewise of the next change of the Astronomical Society of London. But do not wonder at my being so inquisitive about these things. I cannot think of anything else which could interest me more than to see the names of learned men on paper, especially when I see any of those I have known among them. Besides, as in December our concerts begin, where the Duke of Cambridge, on seeing me, generally makes some inquiry after my nephew and family, and what is going on in the philosophical world, one does not always like to stand with one’s mouth open, or to say I cannot tell!...

Mrs. and Miss Beckedorff send their kind love....

Mr. Q., 63, he owns himself, marries a young lady in her teens, but she owns 23; she could not withstand his pretty equipage. He is grown very old and nasty, and good for nothing but to injure his children and grand-children.

God be with you, my dear Lady H.
Believe me your most affectionate sister,
C. HERSCHEL.

TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL, ESQ.

HANOVER, _January 11, 1830_.

MY DEAREST NEPHEW,—

I am sorry it was not in my power to send a letter by way of announcing the Journals, &c., which you will, I hope, receive soon by the messenger who left Hanover the 27th of December. I have been very ill and confined to my room now three weeks, but it seems _der Würg Engel[42] ist noch einmal vorüber gegangen_, at which I am very glad, because I wish to be a little better prepared for making my exit than I am at present.

I intend to amuse myself between this and Easter with collecting and packing up those books which were to be sent to you after my death, and perhaps if I have withstood this _terrible_ winter I may have the pleasure of hearing that you have received them safe, and live in the enjoyment of a few months more, in which I hope to hear of the happy increase to your family, and prosperity in general.

So I am to be godmother! with all my heart! I am now so enured to receiving honours in my old age, that I take them all upon me without blushing....

_Jan. 12th._—No letter for me yet! and no news, except that the Landgräfin of Hesse-Homburg sent me yesterday a very handsome fur mantle to wear when I go to the play, with a message that if I did not put it on, by way of saving it, the next thing she sent me would be a rod. I am accused of having been clothed too thin, for which I have been suffering these last three weeks.... I will give my opinion, and in style of a critic, and you will find yourself not to come off quite free from blame. You have represented me as a goddess, whereas I have done nothing but what I believe to be right; and wherever I did wrong, it was because I knew no better!

[Sidenote: 1830. _A Box of Gifts._]

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL, ESQ.

HANOVER, _June 18, 1830_.

MY DEAREST NEPHEW,—

This letter will go by to-day’s post, which I believe is the last before the messenger leaves Hanover, and Legations Rath Haase has promised to direct the box for me, so that it is to be called for at Mr. Goltermann’s either by yourself, or somebody who will look to it, that it may come safely to your hands. And I will give you here a list of the contents of the box, by which you will see that I must be very anxious till I know that it is safely come to hand, especially as I was obliged to have the box made very slight on account of saving size and weight.

_Contents_:—
Wollaston’s Catalogue.
Bode’s Catalogue.
My Index to Flamsteed’s Observations.
Herschel’s and South’s Observations, bound in red morocco.
Logarithmic Tables by Taylor.
Seventy-two Papers of your father’s, in five volumes.

The parcel directed for my niece contains ornaments which I am afraid will soon be wanted for a general mourning, but I am told they may be worn at any time. Miss Beckedorff chose them for me; my direction was they should be pretty, and not of English manufacture, and not larger than what might be put in the space which I showed her. I am only sorry I could not find anything that might please your dear mother, for, to judge by myself, we want now only ease, quiet, and patience to bear the pains and infirmities attendant on our age; and we are too far asunder for doing more than wishing one another the above-mentioned qualities.

* * * * *

I had intended to have sent my medal along with the books, but since you have presented me with the handsome miniature of your dear Margaretta, from which I cannot part as long as I live, I have mentioned already to Dr. Groskopf that the medal, miniature, and my gold watch (the gift of her grandfather in 1774), are to be sent to my grand-niece and namesake, C. H.

* * * * *

I do not like to send empty paper, but I must. Time falls short, and I am tired already with the thought of the long walk I have to take to carry this letter, for I must see Haase once more, and it is attended with great difficulty to get so heavy a box over at present.

God bless you, dear nephew,
Says your affectionate aunt,
CAR. HERSCHEL.

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL, ESQ.

HANOVER, _Oct. 27, 1830_.

MY DEAREST NEPHEW,—

I see by my memorandum-book that I sent a letter to your dear mother on the 20th August, partly in answer to one of Miss Baldwin’s, which contained the melancholy account of Miss Isabella [Stewart’s] dangerous state of health. I have ever since been very uneasy, and wishing for more cheering information, because I know what a drawback it would be on the happiness of all your dear connection if you should lose her, besides the interruption it must cause in the hitherto cheerful correspondence in which even my dear niece took the pen to join in affording me the only comfort I am yet capable of receiving....

Tell your dear Margaret that the very day on which the letter arrived, in which she requested some hair, I sent for the hair-dresser and made him cut off all which was useless to me, leaving plenty for a toupee and a little curl in the poll. But I repented not having kept a few out of the plait, which I might have sent in a letter, as I understand it is designed for a talisman against the evils of this hurly-burlying world. But I consoled myself with the thoughts that no harm could possibly assail the dear little creature as long as she is under the care of her affectionate and excellent mother, leaving a loving father out of the account.

Dr. Groskopf has been _zum Ritter ernannt_ by his present Majesty. So was Dr. Mühry last week. If all is betitled in England and Germany, why is not my nephew, J. H., a lord, or a wycount at least (query)? General Komarzewsky used to say to your father, Why does not he (meaning King George III.) make you Duke of Slough?

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 1830-1831. _Her Nephew’s Book._]

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL, ESQ.

_March, 1831._

MY DEAREST NEPHEW,—

If it was not high time to congratulate you on your birthday—of which I most heartily wish you may enjoy many returns in uninterrupted and increasing happiness—I might have still deferred to thank you for your kind letter and the valuable present of _your book_. I intend to follow your mother’s example to read it “from end to end,” which I was hitherto not able to do on account of my dim eyes; but now the days are getting longer I think I see better, and to judge by the few pages I have read, that so far from making me go to sleep, it will be an antidote against a propensity for doing so in the daytime.

I much regret my inability to acknowledge my dear niece’s letter in such a manner as might encourage a correspondence with me, but it is difficult to write in a cheerful strain when one is continually in the dismals. I do all I can to keep up my spirits under a daily increase of my infirmities, and have been best part of the winter confined to my rooms. My complaint is incurable, for it is a _decay_ of nature, and nine days after your birthday I am eighty-one. What a shocking idea it is to be decaying! _decaying!_ But never mind—if I am decaying here, there will be, as Mrs. Maskelyne once was comforting me (on observing my growing lean), “the less corruption in my grave!”

_22nd._—Some weeks ago I wrote as above, which I intended as a preface to my dying speech, with intention to give you a few hints concerning ——, and indeed I may say of all my German relations, except the Knipping family. If I did not fear that some of them would, after my decease, introduce themselves as troublesome correspondents to you, I would rather write about something else just now, and indeed I had better drop the subject, for you will know, I suppose, how to rid yourself of a pestering fool by answering coolly, or not at all.

_23rd, afternoon._—Yesterday I was interrupted again, and the whole morning of the present, which I had intended to spend with you at Slough, has again been taken up with gabbling with my radical servant. But the day after Easter I get another, and I hope I shall have better luck; but till then I am not mistress of my time, therefore will hasten to inform you that Mrs. Beckedorff is packing up a parcel for me, which is going from here the day after Easter.... The packet contains a tablecloth, with twelve napkins (the cloth is eight yards long, Mrs. B. says), which I hope my dear niece will do me the pleasure to accept as a remembrance of her old aunt.

Your book[43] I have read as far as page 150, and met with nothing but what I clearly can comprehend, and promise myself much pleasure in reading the rest, which hitherto I have been prevented to do by being continually interrupted, and besides not being able to read many pages at a time before the lines run one into another.

My dear niece said in her letter to me your book would cause a sensation, and so it has, as I hear from all quarters. I am told it has been translated into German from a French translation, and much [all in admiration] is appearing in Gelehrten Anzeigen, which I have not yet been able to get a sight of.... I must give over and defer writing till I am provided with pen, ink, and paper. The first thing my radical servant did when she came to me was to break the bottle [containing] the ink of my own making, which was to have lasted me all my life-time.... First and foremost, give my love to your dear mother, and believe me, ever your most affectionate aunt,

C. HERSCHEL.

[Sidenote: 1831. _Letter to her Niece._]

MISS HERSCHEL TO MRS. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _May 14, 1831_.

O! my dearest niece, where shall I find words which can express my thanks to you for writing me such an interesting letter, at a moment when you were suffering from indisposition!

* * * * *

_May 18th._—Dear niece, how are you now? I hope so far well enough to read what I think necessary to say in answer to yours of May 2nd. I was glad to see that you think the table-linen pretty, but I tremble on seeing that you puzzle yourself about sending me anything in return. Nothing would distress me more than receiving anything from England besides such dear letters as I have hitherto been blessed with, for I am provided with even more than is necessary to appear in the best circle of society, whenever my feebleness will permit me to go from home, and I feel no small regret at leaving so many good things among those who do not want it, or ever cared for me. Now, this is once for all! and you have nothing to do but to go by what dear Herschel says—he knows me, I see, better than I thought he did.

I have something to remark about what you call my letters, which were to be deposited in the letter case. I was in hopes you would have thrown away such incoherent stuff, as I generally write in a hurry at those moments when I am sick for want of knowing how it looks at home, and not to let it rise in judgment against my, perhaps, bad grammar, bad spelling, &c., for to the very last I must feel myself walking on uncertain grounds, having been obliged to learn too much without any one thing thoroughly; for my dear brother William was my only teacher, and we began generally with what we should have ended; he, supposing I knew all that went before. Perhaps I might have done so once, but my memory he used to compare with sand, in which everything could be inscribed with ease, but as easily effaced. Some time hence you will see a book[44] in which I transcribed such lessons as my brother was obliged to give me at such times when I was to set about some calculations of which I knew not much about. I shall this summer collect every scrap of that kind—some written by my brother, and some penned down as they flowed from his lips, and some even incomplete, which were intended to be given more correct when at leisure. I bought a very handsome portfolio for this purpose, and had my nephew’s new seal engraved upon the lock.

I should not have thought of troubling my dear nephew or you with looking over these fragments, but I cannot part with remembrances of times long gone by, so long as life is in me; but for fear I should not have at the last moment the power of burning them, I will keep them ready for being sent off to Slough, for nothing of the kind shall be seen by unhallowed eyes....

[Sidenote: 1831. _Her Grave.—Paganini._]

MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _June 4, 1831_.

MY DEAREST NEPHEW,—

Just now I received yours of May 22nd, and the next post will not go from here till the 7th, and I wish the wind may be favourable that you may be soon made easy about the £50, for which I beg you will, according to custom, give the above receipt to your dear mother. And you may as well add my heartfelt thanks; for what good can it do troubling her with my letters, knowing the weakness in her hands will not permit her answering them....

... I have laid apart for every possible expense which can occur at my exit. Six years ago I had a vault built in the spot where my parents rest. The ground is mine auf ewig (for ever).

You have made me completely happy for some time with the account you sent me of the double stars; but it vexes me more and more that in this abominable city there is no one who is capable of partaking in the joy I feel on this revival of your father’s name. His observations on double stars were from first to last the most interesting subject; he never lost sight of it in his papers on the construction of the heavens, &c. And I cannot help lamenting that he could not take to his grave with him the satisfaction I feel at present at seeing his _son_ doing him so ample justice by endeavouring to perfect what he could only begin....

TO MRS. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _August 11, 1831_.

... I wish Paganini may make some stay yet in England, that you, or my nephew at least, may hear him. The English cannot be more frantic about him than the Hanoverians were. He filled our play-house twice at double price, and though some part of the orchestra had been thrown into parquet, still gentlemen were scattered among the lamps and squeezed in among the performers on the stage. You will think me the maddest of the mad when I tell you that, after spending three parts of each day in pain and misery, I make one of the audience twice a week, if possibly I can hold up my head; for then I am lulled into forgetfulness of my severed situation from all what _was_ or _is_ still dear to me, and amuse myself sometimes with having my vanity tickled by the notice which is taken of my being or not being present. In _The Sun_ of July 13 is a description of Paganini’s face and looks, which I could not have given better myself after having had some conversation with him (through an interpreter); on coming one evening at the end of a play out of my box, I found some gentlemen waiting to introduce him to me, which I believe was partly done to give the people an opportunity to see him.

I am reading all the Parliamentary speeches as given in _The Sun_, and there I meet with some excellent ones by a Sir James Mackintosh; pray is he any connexion of your family? In the paper of July 6th I saw a quotation (by a speaker, Mr. E. Lytton Bulwer,) from a celebrated philosopher (meaning our _own_ J. Herschel) who had felicitously observed that “the greatest discoverer in science can do no more than accelerate the progress of discovery.”...

I remain, my dear niece,
Your most affectionate
CAR. HERSCHEL.

The following letter, from the celebrated Encke, is one of the few preserved which belong to this period, and gives graceful expression to the high esteem in which she was held:—

[Sidenote: 1831. _Letter from Prof. Encke._]

FROM PROFESSOR ENCKE TO MISS HERSCHEL.

BERLIN, _Aug. 17, 1831_.

MADAME,—

I feel great pleasure in informing you that the parcel which has been forwarded to me through your kindness is safely arrived here, and has been delivered to Professor Mitscherlich, according to the directions given by your celebrated nephew, J. Herschel.

I hardly know, madame, how to return you my thanks for the trouble you have so kindly taken in transmitting the parcel to me. It would, indeed, have been an irretrievable loss to have been deprived of the excellent treatise written by your eminent nephew, had it not reached its destination.

Allow me, madame, to avail myself of this opportunity to pay my respects to a lady, whose name is so intimately connected with the most brilliant astronomical discoveries of the age, and whose claims to the gratitude of every astronomer will be as conspicuous as your own exertions for extending the boundaries of our knowledge, and for assisting to develope the discoveries by which the name of your great brother has been rendered so famous throughout the literary world.

I am, with great esteem and regard, madame,
Your most obedient, humble servant,
T. F. ENCKE.

MISS HERSCHEL TO SIR J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _Oct. 25, 1831_.

MY DEAR SIR JOHN,—

But mind, you are still my dear nephew, and will be so good as to give the above to your dear mother. With this last sum, I have actually received since I am here a thousand pounds; a sum which I had no idea (nor I am sure your father neither) you would have been burdened with so long, for when I left England I thought my life was not worth a farthing. But no more of this for the present....

You promised me another Catalogue of double stars, but I suppose you have had no time to arrange them. But do not observe too much in cold weather. Write rather books to make folks stare at your profound knowledge....

Loves and compliments to all whom _we_ love, and God bless my dear nephew, says

Your affectionate aunt,
CAR. HERSCHEL.

P.S.—I received Miss B.’s letter on the 16th. It gave me infinite pleasure to see that Babbage and Brewster have also been honoured with notice. As for the news of my dear nephew’s appointment, she came too late, for on the 9th I was honoured by a note written by the Duke of Cambridge’s own hands, informing me of it.

MISS HERSCHEL TO SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _December 25, 1831_.

DEAREST NEPHEW,—

More than two months are elapsed since I was made happy by your dear letter of October 15th.... I hope that perhaps some good account is on its passage and may reach me before the rivers are frozen up, as at this time of the year the posts are often interrupted.

I have of late been very little from home, except two evenings in the week to the play, for I cannot walk the streets without being led, as I cannot trust my eyes to avoid obstacles, besides a total loss of strength; so that the chief connection I keep up with this world depends on what I by imperfect glimpses can gather from the newspaper and a little talk sometimes with Mrs. Beckedorff. But a few weeks ago I exerted myself, fearing if I delayed much longer I might not be able at all to pay my respects to our good Duchess of Cambridge, and I wished to make good a blunder I had committed two years ago, when I was conversing with her at the Landgräfin’s for half an hour together, taking her all the while to be an officer’s lady, as she came accompanied by her brother, the Prince of Hesse, who wore a moustache. It is the case in general, that I do not know my most intimate friends except by their voices. I was, however, very much gratified by my visit. A lady, who is in the habit of going to Court, left my name along with her own with the lady-in-waiting, and the next Sunday we were appointed to be there at half-past one (a very inconvenient hour for me, for I only begin to be alive when other folks go to sleep). But no reception could be more friendly. I was made take my place by her on the sofa, and after some conversation, the little Princess Augusta was called to tell me that she had seen you at Slough; you had shown her the telescope and described how it was moved by the handle round about. I asked her if she had seen the little girls. The Duchess explained that her call had been unexpected, and regretted that she had not had an opportunity of coming to Slough herself. Then the Princess was sent to call her father, whom I presented with your book, and he went to fetch his spectacles, and was much pleased with the subject, saying, “I shall read it, for I like such things.” After I had read the whole book myself—mind, I say _the whole_, though you recommended me to read only the first and last chapters—and knowing no one who is worthy to look into it, I had it handsomely bound and wrote in the top margin “To His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cambridge.” At the side of Sir Francis Bacon stands “_from_” and in the margin at the bottom, “Caroline Herschel, aunt of the author.” By this means, I know it secured from contamination in the Duke’s library, where anybody who is desirous of reading it will find it.

[Sidenote: 1832. _Last Illness of Lady Herschel._]

_December 26th._

MY DEAREST NIECE,—

So far I wrote last night, thinking to fill this page to-day, with such news as I should like to communicate to my nephew if he was present; but now all is fled from my memory, for my dear sister is ill, and perhaps still in danger, and my only trust is in your goodness of sending me a speedy account, which may confirm the hope you seem to entertain of her recovery. For there is nothing I so ardently desire as to be spared the pain of mourning for a single individual of those friends I have in England, and how much more it would affect me to lose one so nearly connected, and within a few months of my own age, it may be easily imagined.... Next to listening to the conversation of learned men, I like to hear about them, but I find myself, unfortunately, among beings who like nothing but smoking, big talk on politics, wars, and such like things. Of our German astronomers, I have lately heard nothing; but that, perhaps, is owing to Encke having had the cholera, but of which he soon recovered. Gauss has been long unhappily situated by losing his second wife, who had been long lingering....

... I beg once more for an early assurance of my dear sister’s recovery.

MISS HERSCHEL TO SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _Jan. 20, 1832_.

MY DEAREST NEPHEW,—

My dear niece’s and your letter of January 3rd, have indeed answered your kind intentions, for the painful communication of your last found me prepared, and enabled me to break the black seal with tolerable composure, and I found no small consolation from your description of the easy ending of your dear departed parent.

At this moment, I am incapable of saying anything of myself. I know it cannot be long before I shall follow the dear departed, and my pen would trace nothing but lamentations at the prospect that my remains will not be joined in rest by the side of those with whom I lived so long.

But I beg and trust you will continue to bless me with your good opinion and approbation, until the close, for that I have hitherto been in possession of the same, I conclude from the kind letters I receive from your own hands....

[Sidenote: 1832. _Enters her eighty-third year._]

MISS HERSCHEL TO LADY HERSCHEL.

HANOVER, _March 14, 1832_.

MY DEAREST NIECE,—

Your precious letter, which I received this morning, has relieved my mind from the fear that some ill might have befallen my dear friends, because in my solitude the time between January 7th and March 14th, seems to be an age; besides, the last melancholy letters required some soothing subject to think on, for I do nothing else but think of the spot where I once was and never can be again.