I waited to answer your kind letter, for the arrival of Mr. Coke's[11] precious gift, which nobody could higher value, on every account, than the grateful farmer on whom it has been bestowed. The heifers and bull are beautiful; they have reached La Grange in the best order, and shall be tenderly attended to.... It has been a great disappointment not to see Mrs. Somerville and the young ladies before their departure. Had we not depended on their kind visit, we should have gone to take leave of them. They have had the goodness to regret the impossibility to come before their departure. Be so kind as to receive the affectionate friendship and good wishes of a family who are happy in the ties of mutual attachment that bind us to you and them.... Public interest is now fixed upon the Peninsula, and while dynasties are at civil war, and despotic or juste milieu cabinets seem to agree in the fear of a genuine development of popular institutions, the matter for the friends of freedom is to know how far the great cause of Europe shall be forwarded by these royal squabbles.
We shall remain at La Grange until the opening of the session, hoping that, notwithstanding your and the ladies' absence, your attention will not be quite withdrawn from our interior affairs—the sympathy shall be reciprocal.
With all my heart, I am
Your affectionate friend,
Lafayette.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] Mr. Coke, of Holkham, afterwards Earl of Leicester.
CHAPTER XIII.
RETURN TO ENGLAND—LETTER FROM HALLAM—TREATISE ON THE FORM AND ROTATION OF THE EARTH AND PLANETS—SECOND EDITION OF "CONNEXION OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES"—LETTERS FROM MARIA EDGEWORTH, MISS BERRY, LORD BROUGHAM, MRS. MARCET, ADMIRAL SMYTH—DOUBLE STARS—ECLIPSE OF DOUBLE STARS—LETTER FROM ADMIRAL SMYTH—SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL—NEBULÆ—LETTER FROM LORD ROSSE—LETTER FROM SIR JOHN HERSCHEL—SIR JAMES SOUTH'S OBSERVATORY—MR. JOHN MURRAY—MISS BERRY—LORD DUDLEY—MR. BOWDITCH AND OTHER DISTINGUISHED AMERICANS—MRS. BROWNING WASHINGTON—LETTER FROM THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN—SIR WILLIAM FAIRFAX ATTACKED BY HIGHWAYMEN.
As soon as we returned to Chelsea, the "Connexion of the Physical Sciences" was published. It was dedicated to Queen Adelaide, who thanked me for it at a drawing-room. Some time after Somerville and I went to Scotland; we had travelled all night in the mail coach, and when it became light, a gentleman who was in the carriage said to Somerville, "Is not the lady opposite to me Mrs. Somerville, whose bust I saw at Chantrey's?" The gentleman was Mr. Sopwith, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, a civil and mining engineer. He was distinguished for scientific knowledge, and had been in London to give information to a parliamentary committee. He travelled faster than we did, and when we arrived at Newcastle he was waiting to take us to his house, where we were hospitably received by Mrs. Sopwith. His conversation was highly interesting, and to him I was indebted for much information on mining generally, and on the mineral wealth of Great Britain, while writing on Physical Geography. Many years after he and Mrs. Sopwith came and saw me at Naples, which gave me much pleasure. He was unlike any other traveller I ever met with, so profound and original were his observations on all he saw.