June 8th.—My brother returned. I drank tea with him and Mrs. H., and at seven went home to my lodgings.
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July 15th.—Agreed for apartments at Newby’s, the tailor, in Slough (Mr. S. and Mrs. B. speaking well of them as sober, industrious people), I am to enter at Michaelmas.
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August 19th.—I went to Greenwich to meet some company at Dr. Maskelyne’s, and after having spent a week at the R. Observatory, I went with Dr., Mrs., and Miss M. to pay a visit to Sir George Schuckburgh, at Buxted Place, where I left the Ms. on the 30th, and arrived at Slough the 31st.
It was so very rarely that Miss Herschel ever slept from home, that this visit was a memorable event in her experience. A small sheet, written by Miss Maskelyne, headed “Journal from the 19th to the 30th of August, 1799,” is preserved, with the superscription: “By Miss Maskelyne’s memorandum only I found it possible to have any recollection of the occurrences during the eleven days I had intended to spend at Greenwich for the purpose of copying the memorandums from my brother’s second volume of Flamsteed’s Observations into Dr. Maskelyne’s volume. But the succession of amusements, &c., &c., left me no alternative between contenting myself with one or two hours’ sleep per night during the six days I was at Greenwich, or to go home without having fulfilled my purpose.”
The journal was enclosed in a letter from Mrs. Maskelyne, which bears pleasant testimony to the agreeable impression which her visitor must have made on the ladies, as well as the astronomer.
Buxted Place, August 30, 1799.
Dear Miss Herschel,
We thank you for your polite message, are sorry you left Buxted at eight o’clock; hoped you would have taken two dishes of coffee, and not gone till half-past eight, for we were up at seven, to be ready to accompany you to Uckfield.