VISITORS AT SLOUGH 211 



saw and dreaded from the first. "I know how 

 wretched and feverish one feels after two or three 

 nights' waking," Caroline writes of her own all-night 

 vigils. With a woman's quickness for those she loves, 

 she sometimes managed to shield her brother, wearied, 

 like her, with an all-night sitting, from these thought- 

 less callers. " In my way into the garden," she writes, 

 as far back as 1797, "I was met and detained by 

 Lord S. and another gentleman, who came to see my 

 brother and his telescopes. By way of preventing too 

 long an interruption, I told the gentlemen that I had 

 just found a comet, and wanted to settle its place. I 

 pointed it out to them, and after having seen it they 

 took their leave." But she could not always thus act 

 the part of guardian angel. On October 4, 1806, 

 " two parties from the Castle came to see the comet," 

 observed two days before, "and during the whole 

 month my brother had not an evening to himself. . . . 

 It has ever been my opinion that on the 14th of 

 October his nerves received a shock of which he 

 never got the better afterwards ; for on that day (in 

 particular) he had hardly dismissed his troop of men," 

 assisting him in the laborious work of polishing the 

 40-feet mirror, " when visitors assembled, and from the 

 time it was dark till past midnight he was on the 

 grass-plot surrounded by between fifty and sixty 

 persons, without having had time for putting on 

 proper clothing, or for the least nourishment passing 

 his lips. Among the company, I remember, were the 

 Duke of Sussex, Prince Galitzin, Lord Darnley, a 

 number of officers, Admiral Boston, and some ladies." 

 The picture is outlined with a clearness nothing but 

 strong feeling could inspire ; the strain was manifestly 



