210 Caroline Lucretia Herschel. [1827. 



troubling him with any questions, though ever so necessary, 

 for fear of irritating or fatiguing him ; else there was work 

 enough cut out for keeping me employed for several years 

 to come, such as making correct registers of the sweeps in 

 which all Nebulae were to be laid down and numbered, com- 

 plete Catalogues, &c. But what I most regret is, that I 

 never could find an opportunity of consulting your father 

 about collecting the observations made with the 40-foot into 

 a separate book from the journals, into which they were 

 written down among other observations made with the other 

 instruments in the same night. I know besides that 

 many must have been lost, being noted only either on slates 

 or on loose papers, like those on the first discovery of the 

 Georgian Satellites. Owing to my not being, as formerly, the 

 last nor the first at the desk (generally retiring as soon as the 

 mirror was covered), the memorandums were often mislaid 

 or effaced before I had an opportunity of booking them. 

 But I ought to remember that suchlike incomplete observa- 

 tions were made under unfavourable circumstances. For 

 instance, the P. D. clock disordered by not having been 

 used for some time ; the timepiece not having been regulated, 

 nor every one of the out-door motions wanting oiling or clean- 

 ing ; company being present ; the night not perfectly clear ; 

 and, in general, the first night the instrument is used 

 after it has been left at rest for some time, it cannot be ex- 

 pected that all should go on without interruption or ease 

 without a good mechanical workman had spent best part of 

 the day in looking over all the motions, in doing which your 

 father used to find great pleasure. 



But what I most lament is, that between the interval 

 before your coming to the age of forming a proper opinion 

 of the instrument, it had nearly fallen into decay almost in 

 all its parts. But we have all had the grief to see how 

 every nerve of the dear man had been unstrung by over- 



