Part 2 (1/2)
[1] Wife of Major JOHN HERSCHEL, of the Royal Engineers, grandson of Sir WILLIAM
[2] Page 127
[3] _Memoir_ of CAROLINA HERSCHEL, p 10 Sir GEORGE AIRY, Astronomer Royal, relates in the _Academy_ that this ”removal” was a desertion, as he was told by the Duke of Sussex that on the first visit of HERSCHEL to the king, after the discovery of the _Georgiu hiraphie universelle des musiciens_, toanist, and afterwards historian of Doncaster
[6] _The Doctor_; by ROBERT SOUTHEY, edition of 1848, p
140
[7] He frequently gave thirty-five and thirty-eight lessons a week to pupils at this ti to FeTIS A search for these in London has led me to the belief that FeTIS, who is usually very accurate, is here s are by JACOB HERSCHEL
[9] _Foreign Quarterly Review_, volume 31
CHAPTER II
LIFE IN BATH; 1772-1782
It was to a busy life in Bath that HERSCHEL took his sister CAROLINA, then twenty-two years old She was a perfectly untried girl, of very small accomplishments and outwardly with but little to attract The basis of her character was the possibility of an unchanging devotion to one object; for the best years of her life this object was the happiness and success of her brother WILLIAM, who and full of a kind of obstinate pride, which refused to see anything but the view she had adopted As long as her life continued to be with her dearest brother, all ith her She had a noble aileness of character brought her other years of wretchedness It is necessary to understand the alave, in order to comprehend the value which her services were to HERSCHEL She supplied him with an aid which was utterly loyal, entire, and devoted Her obedience was unquestioning, her reverence aave everything in the way of incentive and initiative, and she returned her entire effort loyally
At first her business was to gain a knowledge of the language, and to perfect herself in singing, so that she ht become a soloist in the concerts and oratorios which he was constantly giving
In the beginning it was not easy
”As the season for the arrival of visitors to the baths does not begin till October,a useful singer for his concerts and oratorios, and being very well satisfied with my voice, I had two or three lessons every day, and the hours which were not spent at the harpsichord, were e the fa ive lish and arith accounts of cash received and laid outBy way of relaxation we talked of astronoht constellations hich I had hts we spent on the postwagen travelling through Holland
”My brother ALEXANDER, who had been soed with his elder brother, and, with myself, occupied the attic The first floor, which was furnished in the newest and most handsome style,the harpsichord, was always in order to receive his musical friends and scholars at little private concerts or rehearsalsSundays I received a su book (written in English) showed the a cash One of the principal things required was to land I was sent alone aht hoht I could pick up
My brother ALEX, as now returned froement, used to watch me at a distance, unknown to me, till he saw me safe on my way home But all attempts to introduce any order in our little household proved vain, owing to the servant my brother then had And what still further increased my difficulty was, that my brother's time was entirely taken up with business, so that I only saw him at meals Breakfast was at seven o'clock or before--much too early for ed to rise at so early an hour
”The three winter ainst _heimwehe_ (home sickness) and low spirits, and to answer my sister's melancholy letters on the death of her husband, by which she becalish to derive any consolation from the society of those ere about me, so that, dinner-time excepted, I was entirely left to myself”
So the winter passed
”The time when I could hope to receive a littlenear; for after Easter, Bath becomes very empty, only a few of his scholars, whose fa But I was greatly disappointed; for, in consequence of the harassing and fatiguing life he had led during the winter lass of water, and SMITH'S _Harmonics_ and _Optics_, FERGUSON'S _Astronomy_, etc, and so went to sleep buried under his favorite authors; and his first thoughts on rising were how to obtain instru those objects hi in one of the shops a two-and-a-half-foot Gregorian telescope to be let, it was for so the heavens, but forexperiments on its constructionIt soon appeared thatwhat foran to contrive a telescope eighteen or twenty feet long (I believe after HUYGHENS' description)I wascontinually wanted in the execution of the various contrivances, and I had to alasses, which were to arrive from London, for at that time no optician had settled at Bath But when all was finished, no one besides reat length of the tube would not allow it to be kept in a straight line
This difficulty, however, was soon re tin tubesMy brother wrote to inquire the price of a reflecting mirror for (I believe) a five or six foot telescope The ansas, there were none of so large a size, but a person offered to ht proper to give
About this tiht of a Quaker, resident at Bath, who had for mirrors, all his rubbish of patterns, tools, hones, polishers, unfinished orians, and none above two or three inches dia serious could be atte of June, when so Bath; and then, to my sorrow, I saw al a tube and stands of all descriptions in a handso ht in the autumn from Bristol, where he used to spend the sulasses, and turning eye-pieces, etc At the sa the summer, and my brother had frequent rehearsals at hoer, was ed for the winter concerts”
Finally, in 1774, he had un to view the heavens He was then thirty-six years old
The writer in the _European Magazine_ describes this period: