CHAP, vii.] A Hole in the Sky. 269 



perhaps remember), crying out, " Dang the boy, if he can't 

 drive in a nail as well as I can ! " but pray take care that he 

 does not come to harm, and in your next tell me something 

 of our little Isabella, too. 



I thank you for the astronomical portion of your letter, 

 and for your promise of future accounts of uncommon 

 objects. It is not clusters of stars I want you to discover 

 in the body of the Scorpion (or thereabout), for that does 

 not answer my expectation, remembering having once heard 

 your father, after a long awful silence, exclaim, " Hier ist 

 wahrhaftig ein Loch im Himmel ! "* and, as I said before, 

 stopping afterwards at the same spot, but leaving it unsatis- 

 fied, &c 



About two months ago I was, for the last time, unfortu- 

 nately, at the theatre, when Professor Schumacher and the 

 Chevalier Kessel, of Danneburg, called on me. As soon as 

 I came home 1 sent a note of invitation for the next 

 evening, but had one returned informing me of their leaving 

 Hanover next morning, and a promise of coming perhaps 

 next summer. But I hear Struve is coming, and I hope I 

 shall get a sight of him. The Emperor of Eussia and the 

 King of Denmark are cramming their observatories with 

 astronomical instruments, &c., of all descriptions, made, I 



believe, some of them by Hohenbaum 



***** 



To my dear niece I beg you to give my best love and 

 thanks for the kind arrangement to indemnify me for the 

 loss of her dear letters, by charging her brothers to inform 

 me of all they know, &c., which, thank God, is hitherto of 

 the most comforting nature. 



With the most heartfelt wishes for the continuance of the 

 health of you all, I remain, &c., &c., 



C. HERSCHEL. 



* -Here, indeed, is a hole in the sky. 



