CHAP, iv.] Death of Sir William Herschel. 133 



another, except that I, from my daily calls, returned to my 

 solitary and cheerless home with increased anxiety for each 

 following day." 



On the 25th of August, 1822, Sir William Herschel 

 died in his house at Slough. 



A small book, containing a very few pages, entitled 

 " Memorandum from 1823 to," &c., gives the sad 

 history of the last days of that long life of indefatig- 

 able toil over which the devoted sister had watched so 

 long with untiring love. It would be easy, and per- 

 haps in some respects preferable, to tell the story 

 without the details, but it would be at the cost of 

 much that is characteristic and illustrative of the 

 nature which has thus far been unfolded from within, 

 and it is the last chapter of her life which she thought 

 worth recalling to memory and committing to paper. 

 The terrible blow of the death of her brother seems 

 to have deprived her of all power or desire to do or to 

 will anything beyond the one stern, dogged resolve to 

 leave England for ever as soon as the beloved remains 

 were buried from her sight. Six months after her 

 return to Hanover she thus prefaced this last and most 

 pathetic of her Recollections : 



HANOVEE, April 15th, 1823. 



"Eighteen months have elapsed since I could acquire 

 fortitude enough for noting down in my Day-book any of 

 those heartrending occurrences I witnessed during the 

 last nine months of the fifty years I have lived in England, 

 and I cannot hope that ever a time will come when I shall 

 be able to dwell on any one of those interesting hut melan- 



