Page:Memoir and correspondence of Caroline Herschel (1876).djvu/135

Rh May 2nd.—I left Upton for Slough, to work with my brother. Mrs. H. being in town till

June 18th.—Spent the day at Slough, Mr. and Mrs. Watt being there on a visit, and a large party to dinner.

Aug. 13th.—I went with Mrs. H. and my nephew to pay a visit to our friends at Cumberland Lodge. My brother, again finding it necessary to recruit his strength by absenting himself for a few days from his work-rooms, had left Slough for Tunbridge Wells just the day before, and at our return we found the Duke of Kent, with the Dukes of Orleans, &c., waiting for us, and my nephew [ætat. 15] and myself showed them Jupiter, the Moon, &c., in the seven-foot.

Aug. 29th.—I dined at the Castle. The Queen and Princess Elizabeth honoured me with kind enquiries after the health of my brother, &c. The Princesses Augusta and Mary also came to see me in Miss Beckedorff's room. On coming home the next day, I found my brother had arrived the day before.

Sept. 22nd.—In taking the forty-foot mirror out of the tube, the beam to which the tackle is fixed broke in the middle, but fortunately not before it was nearly lowered into its carriage, &c., &c. Both my brothers had a narrow escape of being crushed to death.

Oct. 1st.—Received an account and letters announcing a comet.

Oct. 2nd.—Saw the comet, visible to the naked eye.

Oct. 4th.—My brother came from Brighton. The same night two parties from the Castle came to see the comet, and during the whole month my brother had not an evening to himself. As he was then in the midst of polishing the forty-foot mirror, rest became absolutely necessary after a

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