CORRESPONDENCE, 1856-66, 333 



To Sir J. F. W. Herschel. 



September 13, 1865. 



MY DEAR SIR JOHN, The world is changing round us very 1865. 

 fast. I have lost two very old friends on two successive Satur- 

 days W. Rowan Hamilton and Smyth. Smyth went off very 

 quietly from mere exhaustion, without any long illness. He 

 had lost a great deal of strength in the preceding fortnight, but 

 had rallied a little, and was driven out on Friday, and went 

 calmly off on Saturday morning with effusion on the lungs. 

 Poor Mrs. Smyth is very calm ; it is the break of a tie of fifty 

 years. 



W. R. Hamilton was an intimate friend whom I spoke to 

 once in my life at Babbage's, about 1830 ; but for thirty years 

 we have corresponded. I saw him a second time at the dinner 

 you got at the Freemason's when you came from the Cape, 

 but I could not get near enough to speak. 



They will take care that a fall life shall be published. Of 

 forty members of the Nautical Almanac Committee of 1830, 

 there remain now, besides our two selves, Airy, Lord Shaftes- 

 bury, Babbage, Lee, Maclear, Robinson, South, Wrottesley ten 

 in all ; this is fair vitality for thirty-five years. 



I am, yours sincerely, 



A. DE MORGAN. 



To Sir J. F. W. Herschel. 



91 Adelaide Road, September 21, 1865. 



MY DEAR SIR JOHN, You must have been much in the way 

 of hearing all the rumours about George III. and his malady. 

 Do you remember hearing a story which I have heard from 

 boyhood, which I find numbers have heard, and which I believe 

 has been in print, but I do not know where ? It is stated that 

 one of the earliest indications of his complaint was a formal 

 announcement to those about him that he intended to begin his 

 speech from the throne with * My lords and peacocks.' To all 

 remonstrance he did nothing but persist, and they say that acci- 

 dental noises as tumbling down books, &c. were prepared to 

 drown the words. If the story be really true, I have no doubt 

 I have arrived at the meaning of his phrase that is, at its 

 origin. But first, query, did it happen ? If it did, there was 

 method in his madness. With kind regards all round, 



Yours very truly, 



A. DE MORGAN. 



