I ought to remember here, I suppose it was in the year 1818, or perhaps earlier, your father wished to draw up the biographical memorandum you have in your possession. But finding himself much at a loss for the dates of the month, or even the year when he first arrived in England with his brother Jacob, I offered to bring some events to his recollection by telling what I remembered having passed at home during the two years his brother was with him, with the proviso not to criticize on telling my story in my own way. But not being very positive about the exact date when my eldest brother returned, I wrote to my brother D. for the date when Jacob entered the orchestra, and found not to have been much out in my reckoning. And from that time on, your father became more settled, and could have recourse to the heads of his compositions, &c., &c., for the dates he wanted for his purpose. Of all that follows I do not remember to have shown him a single line. But as I had once begun the subject I did not know how or where to leave off, and went on, thinking my brother D. might some time or other profit by getting better acquainted with what had passed in our family before his time, and during his infancy, till the death of his father, which happened when D. was in his twelfth year, of which, from the conversation I had with him during the four years between 1809 and 1813, when last in England, I found he had not the least notion, or had purposely formed a very erroneous one. But in the last hope of finding in Dietrich a brother to whom I might communicate all my thoughts of past, present, and future, I saw myself disappointed the very first day of our travelling on land. For let me touch on what topic I would, he maintained the contrary, which I soon saw was done merely because he would allow no one to know anything but himself.... Of course, about these papers I could never have any conversation with him nor anybody else, and I send them to you for your perusal, because I do not wish to keep them any longer, and you may put them in the fire after having read them over. Adieu, dear Nephew, believe me ever, Your most affectionate Aunt, CAR. HERSCHEL. MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL. _Dec. 22, 1827._ * * * * * ... Of Dr. Olbers, I hear frequently through a sister and niece here at Hanover; the last was that he was lamenting at Captain Müller not having brought the paper you had intended for him; the poor man, I hear, is grown corpulent and short-breathed, so that he cannot mount up to his observatory without difficulty.