50 Caroline Lucretia Herschel. [1782. 



suitable for the purpose of an observing-place. Sir Wm. 

 Watson spent nearly the whole time at our house, and he 

 was not the only friend who truly grieved at my brother's 

 going from Bath ; or feared his having perhaps agreed to no 

 very advantageous offers ; their fears were, in fact, not with- 

 out reason The prospect of entering again on the 



toils of teaching, &c., which awaited my brother at home 

 (the months of leisure being now almost gone by), appeared 

 to him an intolerable waste of time, and by way of alternative 

 he chose to be Royal Astronomer, with a salary of 200 

 a year. Sir William Watson was the only one to whom the 

 sum was mentioned, and he exclaimed, "Never bought 

 monarch honour so cheap !" To every other inquirer, my 

 brother's answer was that the King had provided for him. 



Everything was immediately packed for the removal, 

 and on the 1st of August, when the brothers and sister 

 walked over to Datchet from Slough (where the coach 

 passed), they found the waggon, with its precious load 

 of instruments, as well as household furniture, waiting 



' O 



to be unpacked. The new home was a large neglected 

 place, the house in a deplorably ruinous condition, the 

 garden and grounds overgrown with weeds. For a 

 fortnight they had no female servant at all ; an old 

 woman, the gardener's wife, showed Miss Herschel 

 the shops, where the prices of everything, from coals 

 to butcher's meat, appalled her. But these consi- 

 derations weighed for nothing in her brother's eyes 

 against the delight of stables where mirrors could be 

 ground, a roomy laundry, which was to serve for a 

 library, with one door opening on a large grass-plot, 



