Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel — John Shaqi
Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline HerschelHerschel, John, Mrs.
History
Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel
Herschel, John, Mrs.
Herschel, Caroline Lucretia, 1750-1848
“My brother Alexander, who had been some time in England, boarded and
lodged with his elder brother, and with myself, occupied the attic. The
first floor, which was furnished in the newest and most handsome style,
my brother kept for himself. The front room containing the harpsichord
was always in order to receive his musical friends and scholars at
little private concerts or rehearsals.... Sundays I received a sum for
the weekly expenses, of which my housekeeping book (written in English)
showed the amount laid out, and my purse the remaining cash. One of the
principal things required was to market, and about six weeks after
coming to England I was sent alone among fishwomen, butchers,
basket-women, &c., and I brought home whatever in my fright I could pick
up.... My brother Alex, who was now returned from his summer engagement,
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—a
hot-headed old Welshwoman. All the articles, tea-things, &c., which I
was to take in charge, were almost all destroyed: knives eaten up by
rust, heaters of the tea-urn found in the ash-hole, &c. 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 7 o’clock or before (much too early for me, who would rather have
remained up all night than be obliged to rise at so early an hour)....
“The three winter months passed on very heavily. I had to struggle
against _heimweh_ (home sickness) and low spirits, and to answer my
sister’s melancholy letters on the death of her husband, by which she
became a widow with six children. I knew too little English to derive
any consolation from the society of those who were about me, so that,
dinner-time excepted, I was entirely left to myself.”
[Sidenote: 1774-1775. _Life in Bath._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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