230 Caroline Lucretia Hersckel. [1828. 



storm, accompanied with a shower of hail of such an un- 

 common size as weighing three quarters of a pound ; some 

 speak of still larger. I, of course, could only judge of 

 them at a distance by the look, as my carpet was covered by 

 them of all sizes and shapes ; I noticed one in particular 

 of the form of a bottle of india-rubber (as it looks before 

 the neck is cut off), but was at the time incapable of going 

 near enough, for I was obliged to keep out of the direction 

 where they entered, forcing the fragments of glass to my 

 sofa (where I was just going to take my solitary dinner) at 

 the opposite end of the room, which is twenty-one feet 

 distant from the window. The houses look deplorable, and 

 the streets are still glittering with powdered glass. Ex- 

 presses were sent instantly by the magistrates in all direc- 

 tions to the neighbouring towns and glass-houses for work- 

 men and materials. I have been fortunate enough to get 

 my lodging-room mended after lying only two nights without 

 anything but a shutter. 



Our gardens and country houses about Hanover have 

 had the same fate. This happened the daj r before a Volks 

 Fest, which the Hanoverian Burgers keep for three days 

 yearly, and for which all preparations were made, and is 

 now by many kept with a heavy heart. 



But I must not lose this opportunity of mentioning what 

 I forgot in my last, which is to beg you will (when I am no 

 more) take my medal under your protection, and give it a 

 place among those you have of your father's and your own. 

 I will take care that it shall be delivered to you along with 

 those books which I keep yet as companions, though it is 

 seldom I can look into them, for most of my time I am 

 obliged to waste in lying on the sofa, where I try to for- 

 get myself by reading nonsense, over which I soon go to 

 sleep. 



I have the two dullest months before me, for the plays 



