148 Caroline Liicrctia Hcrschcl. [1822. 



that he might assist me at the clock. In my way into the 

 garden I was met and detained by Lord S. and another 

 gentleman, who came to see my brother and his telescopes. 

 ] > y way of preventing too long an interruption, I told the 

 gentlemen that I had just found a comet, and wanted to 

 settle its place. I pointed it out to them, and after having 

 seen it they took their leave. 



These entries were continued with great regularity 

 to the year 1819, at which time, as the Diary shows, 

 Sir William's increasing feebleness made her close 

 daily attendance more necessary, and her pen was in 

 greater request than the " sweeper." The last volume 

 concludes with a carefully drawn eye-draft of the 

 situation of a comet visible at Hanover, January 31st, 

 1824. Thenceforth the instrument which had done 

 such good service in her hands for forty years of 

 steady work, became the chief ornament of her sitting- 

 room, until her disquieting fears for its ultimate fate 

 led her to send it back to England. 



Sad as is the story of those last years of declining 

 old age, while the beloved brother lived we know that 

 his sister's life was full of occupation. It is not until 

 the cruel hour comes, and she knows that death and the 

 grave will soon claim him, that she allows the sense of 

 her own bitter desolation to find expression. "When all 

 was over, her only desire seems to have been to hurry 

 away. Hardly was he laid in his grave than she col- 

 lected the few things she cared to keep, and left for 

 ever the country where she had spent fifty years of her 



