CHAP, vii.] The Long Life is Ended. 345 



at last with scarcely a struggle. Up to the last moment she 

 has had the most undeniable proofs of the affection and 

 veneration of her own family and'a number of friends, both 

 English and German. Mr. Wilkinson, the English clergy- 

 man, has been unremitting in his visits, and so kind and 

 judicious was his manner, that she received them to the 



last with unfeigned satisfaction At four o'clock the 



guns announced the birth of a young Princess an event 

 she had anticipated with much interest ; and upon her being 

 told of it she opened her eyes for the_ last time with con- 

 sciousness. 



The following, translated from a letter of Miss 

 Herschel's niece, Mrs. Knipping, to her cousin, Sir J. 

 Herschel, is a most precious fragment, expressing the 

 sentiments of one who for years contributed to lighten 

 the grievous burden of age and growing infirmity by 

 her constant affection and appreciative sympathy. 

 The regret that so little remains from the same pen is 

 enhanced by the fact that no notes, or memorials of 

 any kind, appear to exist by which we might hope to 

 picture to ourselves one whose unconscious self-por- 

 traiture makes us crave to see and know and become 

 familiarly acquainted with her, as she was seen and 

 known by others. Comparatively recent as was her 

 death, to the best of our knowledge all have passed away 

 from whose lips we could hope to gather the impressions 

 of personal acquaintance. Excepting from the letters 

 already quoted on the occasion of her nephew's two 

 visits to Hanover, it is not until she lay on her death- 



