Hanover, August 11, 1831.
... I wish Paganini may make some stay yet in England, that you, or my nephew at least, may hear him. The English cannot be more frantic about him than the Hanoverians were. He filled our play-house twice at double price, and though some part of the orchestra had been thrown into parquet, still gentlemen were scattered among the lamps and squeezed in among the performers on the stage. You will think me the maddest of the mad when I tell you that, after spending three parts of each day in pain and misery, I make one of the audience twice a week, if possibly I can hold up my head; for then I am lulled into forgetfulness of my severed situation from all what was or is still dear to me, and amuse myself sometimes with having my vanity tickled by the notice which is taken of my being or not being present. In The Sun of July 13 is a description of Paganini’s face and looks, which I could not have given better myself after having had some conversation with him (through an interpreter); on coming one evening at the end of a play out of my box, I found some gentlemen waiting to introduce him to me, which I believe was partly done to give the people an opportunity to see him.
I am reading all the Parliamentary speeches as given in The Sun, and there I meet with some excellent ones by a Sir James Mackintosh; pray is he any connexion of your family? In the paper of July 6th I saw a quotation (by a speaker, Mr. E. Lytton Bulwer,) from a celebrated philosopher (meaning our own J. Herschel) who had felicitously observed that “the greatest discoverer in science can do no more than accelerate the progress of discovery.”...
I remain, my dear niece,
Your most affectionate
Car. Herschel.
The following letter, from the celebrated Encke, is one of the few preserved which belong to this period, and gives graceful expression to the high esteem in which she was held:—
1831. Letter from Prof. Encke.
FROM PROFESSOR ENCKE TO MISS HERSCHEL.
Berlin, Aug. 17, 1831.