I have but just time to thank my dear Lady Herschel, in the first place of giving me the great pleasure of seeing her own handwriting once more, which to me continues much plainer than all the beautiful new-fashioned Italian hands. Secondly, I return my best thanks for the beautiful bracelets; I am going to let them be admired this evening, as I am obliged (though very unwell) to go to a tea-party, and it will be no small trouble to me to make myself fine enough for not disgracing your present. When next I write I hope I shall not be hurried so, and be able to tell you how it goes here at Hanover. Last week I heard five songs by Madame Catalani at the theatre here; but of this, more in my next. With many compliments to Miss B., Believe me, your most affectionate sister, C. HERSCHEL. MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL. _June 23, 1828._ DEAREST NEPHEW,— I have but just time to write a few lines to accompany the Journals Nos. II. and III., therefore I must beg you to excuse the unconnected manner in which I am writing, for it must require some time before I, and many a one beside me, will recover from the fright we were put in on the 21st, at three o’clock in the afternoon, by a thunderstorm, accompanied with a shower of hail of such an uncommon size as weighing three quarters of a pound; some speak of still larger. I, of course, could only judge of them at a distance by the look, as my carpet was covered by them of all sizes and shapes; I noticed one in particular of the form of a bottle of india-rubber (as it looks before the neck is cut off), but was at the time incapable of going near enough, for I was obliged to keep out of the direction where they entered, forcing the fragments of glass to my sofa (where I was just going to take my solitary dinner) at the opposite end of the room, which is twenty-one feet distant from the window. The houses look deplorable, and the streets are still glittering with powdered glass. Expresses were sent instantly by the magistrates in all directions to the neighbouring towns and glass-houses for workmen and materials. I have been fortunate enough to get my lodging-room mended after lying only two nights without anything but a shutter. Our gardens and country houses about Hanover have had the same fate. This happened the day before a _Volks Fest_, which the Hanoverian Bürgers keep for three days yearly, and for which all preparations were made, and is now by many kept with a heavy heart.