Oct. 17th.—In the morning we left our lodging for an inn near the Tower. Mr. Beckwith joined us, and settled at the Custom House for our baggage. My nephew came for a moment to us, and after his departure I saw no one I knew or who cared for me.
Oct. 18th.—At ten o’clock we went on board of the steam packet.
Oct. 20th.—At noon we landed after a stormy passage at Rotterdam.
Oct. 21st.—At daybreak we began to proceed on our way, and
Oct. 28th.—We arrived at the habitation of my brother, in Hanover.
A note, dated September 29th, 1828, apologizes to her nephew for troubling him with the above and other papers, adding:—
I have destroyed my Day-book, but in doing so I was tempted to extract some dates which I thought might still be interesting to me, and bring the past once more to my recollection; but as that would only be a drawback to the satisfaction I almost daily may enjoy by hearing of the fame of my dear nephew, it is best to remove all that can bring the past to my recollection.
The letters which follow are the only documents from which any particulars can be drawn for this and many following years. No Day-book or note-book of any kind appears to have been kept, or at any rate preserved, from the time of the return to Hanover in October, 1822, until the year 1833.
CHAPTER V.
RETROSPECTION.
As we close the record of Miss Herschel’s residence in England, we may pause for a moment to look back over the space she had traversed while following, with unvarying diligence and humility, the path her brother marked out for her, first in blessed hourly companionship, when she was as necessary in his home as in his library, or among his instruments; and latterly, when with saddened heart but unflagging determination she continued to work for him, but saw his domestic happiness pass into other keeping.