CHAP. vn. j Sir John Herschel's Return. 291 



next Saturday or Sunday, when the Queen is expected. 

 More I cannot do ! .... 



.... My head becomes crowded with melancholy fore- 

 bodings of my not lasting so long as to hear of your safe 

 return to your home and the friends which I think are only 

 to be found in happy England ; so, instead of tracing my 

 gloomy imaginations on paper, I go to sleep till Betty rouses 



me with a cup of coffee But all I hear of you is 



told in a tone of admiration, &c., &c., and it is felt by me 

 like a drop of oil supplying my expiring lamp. 



J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL. 



CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, 



Sept. 7, 1837. 

 MY DEAR AUXT, 



* * * * * 



I need hardly say how much we are rejoiced to see 

 your handwriting once more, though that joy is damped 

 by your complaints of winter indisposition. And such a 

 whiter! by all accounts. May this prove a better! and 

 may we hope to find you in no worse health and spirits when 

 we come to see you next summer in Hanover. For so, if it 

 please God to lead us safe home, according to our present 

 altered plans, we most assuredly propose to do. 



I say our altered plans, for you know our intention was 

 to have embarked next March for Rio Janeiro, and there to 

 have spent two or three months, after which to have taken 

 passage in the Brazilian packet for England, which would 

 have probably detained us till October, and have rendered a 

 visit to Hanover that season impracticable. But by striking 

 off this Brazilian trip, and taking our course directly home- 

 wards, so much time will be saved, and all the rest of our 

 domestic arrangements become so much simplified that it 

 seems like finding a treasure, as a fund of time will thereby 

 be placed at our disposal, the first fruits of which, as in 



u 2 



