320 Caroline Lucretia Herschel. 



MISS HERSCHEL TO LADY HERSCHEL. 



HANOVER, August 2, 1841. 



MY DEAREST NIECE, 



.... I could wish to know something more about 

 the place where you now are.* How many miles is Colling- 

 wood from London? How many from Hastings? Have 

 you any good people or neighbours about you ? I tliink I 

 read in Watson's Gazetteer, Hawkhurst to be full of poor, 

 and, what is worse, of smugglers. Pray take care of the 

 dear boys and children, that they are not kidnapped in their 

 little rambles from home. 



I can for the present only say so much of myself that niy 

 friends are almost going to kill me with their visits, like, as 

 they say, the cat did her kitten with kindness. On Sunday 

 I was even honoured with a visit from the Duchess of 

 Anhalt Dessau and the Princess of Rudolstadt the latter a 

 little astronomer who remained a whole hour with me. 

 They are both daughters of the late Queen. 



MISS HERSCHEL TO LADY HERSCHEL. 



HANOVEK, Feb. 3, 1842. 



.... Your mentioning the Government gift of the Kew 

 Observatory to the Royal Society, recalls to my mind the 

 struggles through a life of privations during the lapse of 

 between twenty and thirty years, till my brother had re- 

 alised a capital sufficient for living in a respectable manner 

 by making seven, ten, twenty, and twenty-five-foot tele- 

 scopes. For it was in 1782 when Mr. De Mainborg, the 

 King's private astronomer (formerly one of his tutors) at 

 Kew, died, and my brother, in consequence of the discovery 



* The family of Sir J. Herschel had left Slough and settled at Colliugwood, 

 near Hawkhurst, Kent, now the fntnily residence. 



