... Nine o’clock in the evening (February 19). This is the first moment of quiet after six days in tumultuous joys by all living beings, from the most highest to the most lowest, and I will give you here an account of what share I have had in the rejoicings. In the first place, I must begin with confessing that I have been uncommonly ill of late, and nobody came near me to comfort me; for all my friends were too busy with gala-dresses, or else laid up with colds, &c., from shopping in bad weather, and paddling about in the snow, and I am at this moment ignorant of how they have fared.... I have not time to fill the paper, for my friends begin now to take up my little time of my _short_ forenoons, and the evenings I cannot see; so here I send what I have been scribbling, and will only add that the enclosed programme was sent me, on the 14th by the Crown Prince, who having inquired through somebody after my health, and hearing I was well, and preparing for illumination, was much affected; and yesterday his adjutant, Major Stolzenberg, brought me a message from the Crown Prince, including H. R. H. the Princess, with a present of their portraits. * * * * * * * * * * TO SIR J. F. W. HERSCHEL, BART. _April, 1843._ MY DEAREST NEPHEW!— Many thanks for your dear letter, which I found on my breakfast-table on the morning of the 16th March,[63] ... when the Crown Prince and Princess were announced. Mrs. Clarke, who just came in, assisted me to entertain the royal and interesting pair for nearly an hour. They came in arm in arm, carrying an immense bouquet before them, which I heard afterwards they were returning with from the hothouses at Herrnhausen. As soon as the Princess was placed on the sofa, and I beside the same, the Crown Prince drew a chair close to me, chatting and joining in our conversation. I could not help giving the Princess the lines of your letter to read, where you mention them so prettily, and presenting her with “The Walk,” which was lying among the flowers and the open letters before us on the table. It was a little rumpled in the coming, which she said made it the more welcome, as it would remind her of its having once been mine. I intended to amuse you with the list of the names and titles of all the visitors I had to receive on that day, but you will find them one of these days in my Day-book; and I will only say that it was rather too much to expect me to be civil to upwards of thirty persons in one day, which lasted till evening, so that I had no time to eat a morsel, finding myself seriously ill. * * * * * [Sidenote: 1843. _On the Zodiacal Light._] _May 4, 1843._ Memorandum for my next letter, made April 23rd.