280 Caroline Lucretia Herschel. [is^o. 



SIR J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL. 



FELLHATTSEN, Oct. 24, 1835. 

 DEAR AUNT, 



The last accounts we have of you are that you are 

 elected a member of the Astronomical Society, and that to 

 keep you in countenance, and prevent your being the only 

 lady among so many gentlemen, you have for a colleague 

 and sister member, Mrs. Somerville. Now this is well 

 imagined, and we were not a little pleased to hear it. May 

 you long enjoy your well-earned laurels ! 



As I presume our news will interest you more than com- 

 ments upon what goes on in Europe, in the first place be it 

 known to you, that we are all well and, thank Heaven, happy. 



The children, one and all, thrive uncommonly The 



stars go on very well, though for the last two months the 

 weather has been chiefly cloudy, which has hitherto pre- 

 vented me seeing Halley's comet. Encke's (yours) escaped 

 me, owing to trees and the Table Mountain, though I cut 

 away a good gap in our principal oak avenue to get at it. 

 However, Maclear, at the Observatory, succeeded in getting 

 three views of it with the fourteen-foot Newtonian of my 

 father's (the Glasgow telescope) on the 14th, 19th, and 

 (?) 24th of September. If .you have an opportunity of 

 letting this become known to Encke, pray do so (I shall 

 write to him shortly myself). It was in or wear the calcu- 

 lated place, but no measures could be got. 



I have now very nearly gone over the whole southern 

 heavens, and over much of it often. So that after another 

 season of reviewing, verifying, and making up accounts (re- 

 ducing and bringing in order the observations) we shall be 

 looking homewards. In short, I have, to use a homely 

 phrase, broken the neck of the work, and my main object 

 now is to secure and perfect what is done, and get all ready 



