* * * * *
Let the time come whenever it may please God, I leave cash enough behind to clear me from all and any obligations to all who here do know me. Even the expenses of a respectable funeral lie ready to enable my friend Mrs. Beckedorff, and one of my nieces (the widow of Amptmann Knipping,[[49]] who lately came to settle at Hanover) to fulfil my directions.
I hope you will pardon my troubling you with such doleful subjects, but I wish to show you that my income is by one third more than I have the power to spend, for by a twelve years’ trial I find that I cannot get rid of more than 600 thl. = £100 per year, without making myself ridiculous.
MISS HERSCHEL TO LADY HERSCHEL.
Hanover, August 6, 1835.
My dearest Niece,—
I dare not wait any longer for a return of better spirits, such as in which I should like to reply to my nephew’s dated February 22nd, and yours of May 19th, for I fear if I do not at least acknowledge the receipt of them, I shall not be gladdened again by such delightful descriptions of your health and healthful situation, and my nephew’s contentment with the successful progress he is making in his intended observations.
At first, on reading them, I could turn wild, but this is only a flash, for soon I fall in a reverie of what my dear nephew’s father would have felt if such letters could have been directed to him, and cannot suppress my wish that his life instead of mine had been spared until this present moment; for what immense and wonderful discoveries have not been made within these thirteen years, chiefly by his own son, or son’s suggestion!
1835. Present of Constantia.
But I must stop here and turn to more earthly and indifferent subjects (though they ought not to be called indifferent neither), for in the first place I have to return my thanks for no less than three dozen of Constantia wine, but this I shall do but with a very bad grace, for ever since the 11th of May, when I received my nephew’s letter, I have been in the fidgets about the trouble he and his friends must have had before such a thing could reach me.... I feel more reconciled after unburdening myself of some of this weighty concern by making presents to all who love and esteem you so truly, and after setting apart a portion, according to Captain Müller’s advice, with which you may be treated when at your return you may perhaps visit Hanover again, there remains more than ever I can get through with, for I am very desirous to spin out the thread of my life till you return home. And I know it is a mistaken notion that old folks want more of what they call comfort than young ones. It is not very easy to find out what will convey comfort in general.... I, for instance, know of no other comforts like those I derive from yours and my dear niece’s letters. Her last leaves me nothing to wish for....