268 Mary Somerville. 



for Lord Rosse's great reflector, I can only tell you what I 

 hear, having never seen it, or even his three feet one. 

 The great one is not yet completed. Of the other, 

 those who have looked through it speak in raptures. I 

 met not long since an officer who, at Halifax in Nova 

 Scotia, saw the comet at noon close to the sun, and veiy 

 conspicuous the day after the perihelion passage. 



Your account of the pictures and other delicite of 

 Venice makes our mouths water ; but it is of no use, so 

 we can only congratulate those who are in the full enjoy- 

 ment of such things. 



Ever yours most truly, 



J. HERSCHEL. 



On returning to Eome I was elected Associate of 

 the College of Bisurgenti, and in the following April 

 I became an honorary member of the Imperial and 

 Royal Academy ol Science, Literature and Art at 

 Arezzo. I finished an edition of the Physical 

 Sciences, at which I had been working, and in 

 spring Somerville hired a small house belonging 

 to the Duca Sforza Cesarini, at Genzano, close te/ 

 and with a beautiful view of the Lake of Nemi; 

 but as I had not seen my son for some time, I 

 now availed myself of the opportunity of travelling 

 with our friend Sir Frederick Adam to England. 

 We crossed the Channel at Ostend, and at the 

 mouth of the Thames lay the old " Venerable," 

 in which my father was flag-captain at the 



