218 Caroline Lucretia Herschel. [1827. 



where I first drew my breath, and where the first twenty-two 

 years of iny life (from my eighth year on) had been sacrificed 

 to the service of my family under the utmost self-privation 

 without the least prospect or hope of future reward. Or in 

 case I had died in England, it was to have been sent to D., 

 for I wished him to get a more correct idea of our father 

 than what I thought he had formed of that excellent being. 



He never recollected the eight years' care and attention he 

 had received from his father, but for ever murmured at 

 having received too scanty an education, though he had the 

 same schooling we all of us had had before him. 



I ought to remember here, I suppose it was in the year 

 1818, or perhaps earlier, your father wished to draw up 

 the biographical memorandum you have in your possession. 

 But finding himself much at a loss for the dates of the 

 month, or even the year when he first arrived in England 

 with his brother Jacob, I offered to bring some events to 

 his recollection by telling what I remembered having passed 

 at home during the two years his brother was with him, 

 with the proviso not to criticize on telling my story in my 

 own way. But not being very positive about the exact date 

 when my eldest brother returned, I wrote to my brother D. 

 for the date when Jacob entered the orchestra, and found not 

 to have been much out in my reckoning. And from that 

 time on, j r our father became more settled, and could have 

 recourse to the heads of his compositions, &c., &c., for the 

 dates he wanted for his purpose. 



Of all that follows I do not remember to have shown 

 him a single line. But as I had once begun the subject I did 

 not know how or where to leave oft', and went on, thinking 

 my brother D. might some time or other profit by getting 

 better acquainted with what had passed in our family before 

 his time, and during his infancy, till the death of his father, 

 which happened when D. was in his twelfth year, of which, 



