My dearest Niece,—
A thousand thanks for your kind letter, which contains ever so much comfortable and satisfactory information, such as heart can but wish....
I have begun a piece of work which I despair of finishing before my eyesight and life will leave me in the lurch. You will perhaps wonder what such a thing as I may pretend to do, can be, but I cannot help it, and shall not rest till I have wrote the History of the Herschels. I began, of course, with my father and his parents. My father was born in January, 1707, and I have now only got so far as the beginning of 1758, and it begins to interest me much, but I doubt whether I shall live to finish it, but think it a pity it should be thrown away.[[60]]...
... Do not forget to thank my little nephew for his pretty letter. His description of the method his papa makes use of in teaching mathematical figures, I prefer to that of his grandfather. He used, when making me, a grown woman, acquainted with them, to make me sometimes fall short at dinner if I did not guess the angle right of the piece of pudding I was helping myself to!
1842. Regrets.
MISS HERSCHEL TO LADY HERSCHEL.
Hanover, July 7, 1842.
My dearest Niece,—
I have just now been reading your dear letter of June 7th once again, but I shall take care not to look into it for yet a while, else I run the risk of going mad when thinking of my running away from a country where I might have been an eye-witness, and sometimes a partaker, of so much domestic happiness. But it is no matter now, and of no use fretting about it; I am only sorry I cannot go on with my history as fast as I could wish, for I feel too unwell to be doing any thing for any length of time....
... I am glad my dear nephew finds pleasure in giving up so much of his valuable time to his dear sons; for my hair stands at an end on hearing what beings are continually expelled from our Eton here, all owing to ignorant ambitious parents trusting entirely to unprincipled hirelings.