1 6 HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



flotilla of flat-bottomed boats was assembled at Dunkirk 

 to transport an army to the English coast. The specu- 

 lations of politicians were prefaced with, " If no French 

 come." The situation was pronounced by some of them 

 comical, and the nation droll. In March of the fol- 

 lowing year " the King notified the invasion to both 

 Houses, and his having sent for Hessians. There were 

 some dislikes expressed to the latter ; but, in general, 

 fear preponderated so much that the cry was for 

 Hanoverians too." Hanoverian officers were even pre- 

 ferred to the native-born. But the cynics of London 

 laughed, invented, and lied. " They said that the 

 night the Hanover troops were voted, George II. sent 

 for his German cook, and said, ' Get me a very good 

 supper ; get me all de varieties : I don't mind ex- 

 pense.' " Exquisites, like Walpole, were wondering 

 where their foreign defenders would be encamped. If 

 the Hanoverians should be stationed at Hounslow, 

 " Strawberry Hill would become an inn, and all the 

 misses would breakfast there, to go and see the 

 camp ! " l Even in George Townshend's " admirable " 

 cartoon, " which so diverted the town," " the Hano- 

 verian drummer, Ellis," " though the least like, was a 

 leading feature." Instead of fighting, Englishmen were 

 sneering or laughing. 



It was in these days of fear and threatened invasion 

 that the King's Hanoverian Guards were ordered to 

 England. 2 Isaac Herschel and his two sons, Jacob and 



1 Walpole, Letters, iii. 109, 164, 165, 206, 209, 217. 



2 "Towards the end of the year 1755," Caroline Herschel says 

 (p. 8). This does not seem to be correct. Horace Walpole's Letters 

 would lead a reader to place it several months later, in 1756. Neither she 

 nor her brother seems to have been sure of the date. (Memoirs, p. 218.) 



