336 Caroline Lncrctia HerscJiel. [1846. 



and a portrait of her was exhibited as a Sappho crowned 



with laurels 



* * * * * 



The great difficulty of writing begins at last to tell 

 in Miss Herschel's correspondence. One more letter 

 in 1845, is the last of the ample sheets she had been 

 used to fill. The monthly report becomes shorter, more 

 blotted, and betrays extreme feebleness. On the first 

 of October, 1846, she wrote : 



MY DEAREST NIECE ! 



I must not let the messenger go without a line just 

 to say that I am still in the land of the living, of which, 

 however, I have no other proof than a letter from Baron 

 v. Humboldt, inclosing a Golden Medal from the King of 

 Prussia. I can say no more at present, and the post will 

 not wait, so believe me, my dear niece, yours and my dear 

 nephew's most affectionate aunt, 



CAE. HERSCHEL. 



The following is the letter referred to from Alex- 

 ander von Humboldt which accompanied the Gold 

 Medal presented by the King of Prussia on the occasion 

 of her ninety-sixth birthday : 



BERLIN, Sept. 25, 1846. 

 MOST HONOURED LADY AND FRIEND ! 



His Majesty the King, in recognition of the valuable 

 services rendered to Astronomy by 3 T ou, as the fellow- worker 

 of your immortal brother, Sir William Herschel, by dis- 

 coveries, observations, and laborious calculations, com- 

 manded me, before his departure for Silesia, to convey to 

 you, in his name, the large Gold Medal for Science, and to 



