Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel

1. The Duke of Cumberland’s army suffered severely in this battle.

2. “While the King of Prussia was warring in the south of Germany, an army of 60,000 Frenchmen under Marshal d’Estrées was directed upon Hanover, and occupied in the first place the Prussian dominions lying upon the Rhine.... d’Estrées had been to a certain degree successful in an action at Hastenbeck, on the Weser, and had forced Cumberland to retreat. That commander continued to yield ground incessantly, leaving Hanover and Magdeburg unprotected.... He concluded with Richelieu the convention of Closter Severn, by which he engaged that ... the Hanoverian troops should continue inactive in their quarters near Stade. Hostilities were to be suspended, and no stipulation was made respecting the Electorate of Hanover. That country was accordingly plundered without mercy, and subjected to enormous contributions.”—Annals of France, Encyclopædia Metropolitana.

3. Afterwards Madame Beckedorff, Miss Herschel’s most valued friend in after years.

4. The other version calls it “from Helvot to Harrige” = Harwich.

5. Although a considerable quantity of Sir W. Herschel’s musical compositions exist in manuscript, much has unhappily perished. His sister writes:—“I only lament that this anthem was left with the rest of my brother’s sacred compositions, which were left in trust with one of the choristers. The morning and evening services each in two different keys, and numerous psalm tunes most beautifully set. The organ book containing the scores; the parts written out and bound in leather, in a box with lock and key which was always kept at the chapel. All is lost. With difficulty many years after, one Te Deum was recovered, and when I was in Bath in 1800 I obtained two or three torn books of odd parts.” The chorister’s wife openly charged Mr. Linley with having taken possession of these treasures.

6. “The grinding of specula used to be performed by the hand, no machinery having been deemed sufficiently exact. The tool on which they were shaped having been turned to the required form, and covered with coarse emery and water, they were ground on it to the necessary figure, and afterwards polished by means of putty or oxide of tin, or pitch spread as a covering to the same tool in the place of the emery. To grind a speculum of six or eight inches in diameter was a work of no ordinary labour; and such a one used to be considered of great size.”—“Lord Rosse’s Telescopes,” 1844.

7. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, Dec. 6, 1781.

8. “About the latter end of this month [December, 1779] I happened to be engaged in a series of observations on the lunar mountains, and the moon being in front of my house, late in the evening I brought my seven-feet reflector into the street, and directed it to the object of my observations. Whilst I was looking into the telescope, a gentleman coming by the place where I was stationed, stopped to look at the instrument. When I took my eye off the telescope, he very politely asked if he might be permitted to look in, and this being immediately conceded, he expressed great satisfaction at the view. Next morning the gentleman, who proved to be Dr. Watson, jun. (now Sir William), called at my house to thank me for my civility in showing him the moon, and told me that there was a Literary Society then forming at Bath, and invited me to become a member of it, to which I readily consented.”—Sir W. Herschel’s Journal. This occurred at a house in River Street, which was soon changed for 19, New King Street.

9. George Griesbach, who with the rest of the family settled in England, where they all did well, their musical talents and connections bringing them a good deal under the notice of the Court. Mr. G. Griesbach’s youngest daughter, Elizabeth, became the wife of Mr. Waterhouse, of the British Museum. She died in 1874.

10. This eminent astronomer made inquiries after Miss Herschel long years afterwards, as is related in the correspondence. See letter from Sir J. Herschel, dated Catania, 1824, p. 174.

11. This is the last time that the name of Jacob Herschel appears.

12. Dr. Herschel married Mary, only child of Mr. James Baldwin, a merchant of the City of London, and widow of John Pitt, Esq., by whom she had one son, who died in early youth. She was a lady of singular amiability and gentleness of character. The jointure which she brought enabled Dr. Herschel to pursue his scientific career without any anxiety about money matters.

13. M. De la Lande’s name was Jerome Le Français dit de la Lande; it is to himself, therefore, that he here refers. The letter is addressed “Mlle. Caroline Herschel, Astronome Célèbre, Slough.”

14. This comet, since known as Encke’s, in consequence of that great astronomer having determined its periodicity in 1819 and predicted its triennial return, was discovered, independently, four several times before its identity was recognized, Miss Herschel’s observation of it in 1795 being the second in order of time. Additional interest has since attached to it, in consequence of its gradually diminishing period and the views hence suggested on the economy of the solar system.

15. The Rev. S. Vince, a mathematician and natural philosopher.

16. Sir William Watson, M.D., Knight, F.R.S. from 1770 to 1800, when he resigned. He was one of the first members of the Astronomical Society at its foundation in 1821 under the Presidency of William Herschel. His father, also M.D. and Knight, was the eminent botanist and naturalist. He lived much at Dawlish, where the Herschel family frequently went to stay with him.

17. Alexander Wilson, M.D., professor of practical astronomy in the University of Glasgow, and first propounder of that theory as to the cause and nature of the spots on the sun, which was afterwards fully corroborated and worked out by Sir W. Herschel.

18. The Prince’s questions were sometimes of a very remarkable kind. On a previous occasion when he “stept in” with a view to having them answered, and was not so fortunate as to find anyone at home, he left the following memorandum: “The Prince of Orange has been at Slough to call at Mr. Herschel’s and to ask him, or if he was not at home to Miss Herschel, if it is true that Mr. Herschel has discovered a new star, whose light was not as that of the common stars, but with swallow tails, as stars in embroidery. He has seen this reported in the newspapers, and wishes to know if there is any foundation to that report.—Slough, the 8th of August, 1798.—W. Prince of Orange.”

19. James Lind, M.D., was a Scotchman, who devoted a considerable amount of his time to astronomical observations.

20. The only child of Dr. Herschel. He afterwards became Sir John Herschel. Miss Herschel was very proud as well as fond of him. He is “my nephew.” Dr. Herschel is usually called “my brother,” in distinction from all the rest of the family.

21. Mrs. Beckedorff was “the sweet little girl of ten or eleven years old” with whom Miss Herschel had exchanged pleasant greetings when they were both taking lessons in dressmaking from Madame Küster, in Hanover, thirty-five years before. (See p. 22.)

22. Probably Professor Wales, mathematical master at Christ’s Hospital, author of a mathematical paper published in the “Phil. Trans.,” 1781.

23. The cost of this fine instrument, which had been ordered by the King of Spain as long before as January, 1796, was £3150. The Prince of Canino paid £2310 for a ten and a seven-foot telescope from the same indefatigable hands. But although the pecuniary profit was great, it is not surprising that Miss Herschel should bemoan the “making and selling of telescopes” as unworthy of the enormous amount of time and labour which must be withdrawn from the study of astronomy; and it is evident that the fatigue and exhaustion from polishing mirrors told seriously upon Sir William’s health.

24. A characteristic little note from her brother belongs to this time: “Lina,—Last night I ‘popt’ upon a comet. It is visible to the naked eye, between Fomalhout and β Ceti, but above the line that joins the two stars. It made an equilateral triangle (downwards) with 100 and 107 Aquarii. I wrote last night to Sir J. Banks and write now also to Dr. Maskelyne. Adieu.

Dec. 9, 1805.”

25. De Luc was a geologist of high reputation; an ardent opponent of Huttonian views.

26. The following notice is from a Bristol paper:

“Died, March 15th, 1821, at Hanover, Alexander Herschel, Esq., well-known to the public of Bath and Bristol as a performer and elegant musician; and, who for forty-seven years was the admiration of the frequenters of concerts and theatres of both those cities, as principal violoncello.

“To the extraordinary merits of Mr. Herschel was united considerable acquirement in the superior branches of mechanics and philosophy, and his affinity to his brother, Sir William Herschel, the illustrous astronomer, was not less in science than blood. To a large circle of professional friends the uniform gentlemanly manners of Mr. Herschel have rendered him at once an object of their warmest regard and respect.” Alexander Herschel returned to Hanover in September, 1816, and was enabled to live in comfortable independence until his death at the age of seventy-six, through the never failing generosity of his elder brother.

27. Although Miss Herschel was endowed by nature with a fine healthy constitution, she suffered much in various ways during the last twenty-five years of her life; and there is little doubt that her health was injured, to a considerable extent, by the excessive fatigue and serious accidents to which she was exposed in her earlier days, when she often denied herself rest that was imperatively needed, in order to be at hand when her brother required her services.

28. A younger sister of Mrs. Beckwith, niece of Lady Herschel.

29. This passage is a later note, added Sept. 26, 1828.