74 Mary Somerville. 



linen. When I was going away she gave me 

 twenty pounds to buy a shawl or something warm 

 for the following winter. I knew that the Presi- 

 dent of the Academy of Painting, Sir Arthur Shee, 

 had painted a portrait of my father immediately 

 after the battle of Camperdown, and I went to see 

 it The likeness pleased me, the price was twenty 

 pounds ; so instead of a warm shawl I bought my 

 father's picture, which I have since given to my 

 nephew, Sir William George Fairfax. My husband's 

 brother, Sir Alexis Greig, who commanded the 

 Eussian naval force in the Black Sea for more than 

 twenty years, came to London about this time, and 

 gave me some furs, which were very welcome. Long 

 after this, I applied to Sir Alexis, at the request 

 of Dr. Whewell, Master of Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge, and through his interest an order was 

 issued by the Russian Government for simultaneous 

 observations to be made of the tides on every 

 sea-coast of the empire. 



LETTER FROM DE. WHEWELL TO MRS. SOMERVILLE. 



UNIVERSITY CLUB, Jan. 5, 1838. 



MY DEAR MRS. SOMERVILLE, 



I enclose a memorandum respecting tide 

 observations, to which subject I am desirous of drawing 

 the attention of the Eussian Government. Nobody 

 knows better than you do how much remains to be done 



