234 Caroline Litcretia Herschel. [1829, 



J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL. 



26, LOWER PHILLIMORE PLACE, 

 Jan. 14, 1829. 



MY DEAR AUNT, 



I received your two letters at once, and I cannot 

 enough thank you for the kind consideration which prompted 

 your offer, for I will not yet call it your gift, as I cannot 

 really consent to such a robbery. If you are bent on giving 

 ine something truly valuable infinitely more so than money, 

 which (though I am not rich, and am now less so by some 

 annual hundreds than I was, and am about voluntarily * to 

 incur a still further diminution of income) yet, thank God, 

 I am in want of nothing and would rather spare to you than let 

 you spare to me. But if you want to give me what I shall really 

 prize highly, let it be your portrait in oils of the size of my 

 father's. Let me send back the money, and employ part of 

 it in engaging a good Hanoverian artist to paint it. You 

 often tell me your time hangs heavy, so here I "am furnish- 

 ing you with a refuge from ennui, and when you know how 

 much pleasure it will give me to see your likeness hanging 

 by my father's, and that you can without inconvenience or 

 difficulty (and now without expense) do it, I entreat you not 

 to refuse. I know what you will urge against it, but you 

 undervalue yourself and your own merits so much that I 

 will not allow it any weight. 



My mother is ill with the gout, but I hope it is not 

 going to be a severe fit, as she is already on the mend. 

 Your affectionate nephew, 



J. F. W. HERSCHEL. 



MISS HERSCHEL TO LADY HERSCHEL. 



March 3, 1829. 



MY DEAR LADY HERSCHEL, 



I long to congratulate you on the happy occasion of 



* An allusion to his approaching marriage, when ho would resign his 

 Fellowship. 



