CHAP, vii.] Visit from her Grand-nepheiv. 295 



says Willie. ' What is that he says ?' ' He says h comes 

 from the Cape of Good Hope.' ' Ay ? and who is he ? 

 What is his name ?' * His name is Herschel.' * Yes,' says 

 Willie, ' William James Herschel.' ' Acli, mein Gottf das 

 ist niclit moglich ; ist dieser meines Neffen's Sohn ? ' And so 

 it all came out, and when I came to her all was understood, 

 and we sat down and talked as quietly as if we had parted 



but yesterday 



" Groskopff, by the way, was recounting a strange feat 

 which, to give you some notion of the sort of person (par 

 rapport au physique], she performed, not longer than half a 

 year ago. Remember it is a person of eighty-eight or 

 eighty-nine of whom we are speaking. Well ! what do you 

 say of such a person being able to put her foot behind her 

 back and scratch her ear, in imitation of a dog, with it, in 

 one of her merry moods?" 



The " Day-Book," as already stated, had been re- 

 commenced in the year 1833. The first volume of 

 the new Day-Book concludes in May, 1837, with 

 comments on Baily's account of Flamsteed, and recol- 

 lections of days spent at Greenwich in 1799, when she 

 had seen and wondered at the piles of manuscripts 

 accumulated there. "Dr. Maskelyne was not indif- 

 ferent to the stores of observations of his predecessor, 

 for he even attempted to make me undertake the exa- 

 mination of some of Halley's scribblings on fragments 

 of waste paper [to see if they] might not belong to 

 some star or other. But such things cannot be done 

 in a moment, and the parcel was restored to its dusty 

 shelf. Poor Dr. Maskelyne had but one assistant, 



