CAROLINE'S HOUSEKEEPING 33 



them by the name of Dick Doleful, and when he 

 fell into the dismals, as he seems frequently to have 

 done, William and Caroline had the pleasure of 

 laughing him out of them into good humour. The 

 house 1 was managed by the family of Mr. Bulman, 

 William Herschel's "earliest acquaintance in this 

 country," with whom he lodged in Leeds, and for 

 whom he procured the situation of clerk to the 

 Octagon Chapel. They occupied the parlour floor. 

 " Alexander, who had been some time in England, 

 boarded and lodged with his elder brother, and with 

 myself," Caroline says, " occupied the attic. The first 

 floor, which was furnished in the newest and most hand- 

 some style, my brother kept for himself. The front 

 room, containing the harpsichord, was always in order 

 to receive his musical friends and scholars at little 

 private concerts or rehearsals." A household so con- 

 stituted, with a manager in charge " who had failed in 

 business " in Leeds, and a strong-minded young woman 

 who had known the thrift and drudgery of a poor 

 German home in Hanover, had not in it the elements 

 of stability. In six weeks, apparently, Caroline had 

 to take the reins of household management into her 

 own hands. No details are given; but, while still 

 unable to speak English with comfort to herself, she 

 was put in charge of the house accounts, and attended 

 to the marketing, with her brother Alexander on guard 

 behind to see that she found her way to market and 

 home again in safety. The first time she ventured 

 into a clamorous crowd of sellers, she brought back 

 whatever in her fright she could pick up. But her 

 battles with servants and her horror of waste were 

 1 No. 7 New King Street. 



