196 HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



respects she was the real, but not the nominal head of 

 that centre of activity and discovery. When Dr. 

 Burney called on Herschel in 1798, ten years after 

 his marriage with Mrs. Pitt, to consult him about his 

 great poem on astronomy and astronomers, he was 

 surprised to find Mrs. Herschel, and not her sister-in- 

 law Caroline, at the head of the table, while a merry 

 little son of six, afterwards Sir John Herschel, amused 

 him and the rest of the company. Dr. Burney did not 

 know that his friend William Herschel was married. 

 Even in 1817, another visitor, Dr. Niemeyer, was 

 equally ignorant. These are proofs of the gentle, re- 

 tiring nature of the wife, to which Herschel's friends 

 bear witness, and of the overshadowing celebrity to 

 which his sister had attained. From all quarters we 

 learn that it was as pleasant a home as it was a famous 

 observatory. 



Miss Burney, the famous authoress of Evelina, who 

 accepted the post of assistant wardrobe keeper to the 

 Queen in Windsor Castle at 200 a year, when she 

 might have earned ten times that amount by her pen, 

 and retained her independence besides, may possibly 

 have had a fellow-feeling with Herschel, who was 

 condemned, as she was, to bear heavy burdens from 

 the etiquette of a court. Her picture of him is every 

 way delightful ; his wife comes in for a briefer notice 

 and for less praise. At a tea-party and concert in 

 Windsor she met them both, five months after their 

 marriage. " Two young ladies were to perform," she 

 says, " in a little concert. Dr. Herschel was there, and 

 accompanied them very sweetly on the violin; his 

 new-married wife was with him, and his sister. His 

 wife seems good-natured ; she was rich, too ! and astro- 



