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 Jacob was with us from April till October, 1787, when he
returned to Hanover again. Alexander came only for a short time to give
his brother the meeting, Mrs. H. being too ill to be left long alone.
(She died in January of 1788.)
Professor Snaidecky often saw some objects through the twenty-foot
telescope, among others the Georgian satellites. He had taken lodgings
in Slough for the purpose of seeing and hearing my brother whenever he
could find him at leisure; he was a very silent man.
My brother’s bust was taken by Lochée, according to Sir Wm. Watson’s
order. Professor Wilson and my brother Jacob[11] were present.
In August an additional man-servant was engaged, who would be wanted at
the handles of the motions of the forty-foot, for which the mirror in
the beginning of July was so far finished as to be used for occasional
observations on trial.
[Sidenote: 1786-1787. _Slough—Appointed Assistant Astronomer._]
Such a person was also necessary for showing the telescopes to the
curious strangers, as by their numerous visits my brother or myself had
for some time past been much incommoded. In consequence of an
application made through Sir J. Banks to the King, my brother had in
August a second £2,000 granted for completing the forty-foot, and £200
yearly for the expense of repairs, such as ropes, painting, &c., &c.,
and the keep and clothing of the men who attended at night. A salary of
fifty pounds a year was also settled on me as an assistant to my
brother, and in October I received twelve pounds ten, being the first
quarterly payment of my salary, and the first money I ever in all my
lifetime thought myself to be at liberty to spend to my own liking. A
great uneasiness was by this means removed from my mind, for though I
had generally (and especially during the last busy six years) been
almost the keeper of my brother’s purse, with a charge to provide for my
personal wants, only annexing in my accounts the memorandum _for Car._
to the sums so laid out—when cast up, they hardly amounted to seven or
eight pounds per year since the time we had left Bath. Nothing but
bankruptcy had all the while been running through my silly head, when
looking at the sums of my weekly accounts and knowing they could be but
trifling in comparison with what had been and had yet to be paid in
town, for my brother had not been fortunate enough to meet with a
reasonable man for a caster who could also furnish the crane, &c., and
his bills came in greatly overcharged. But more of this in another
place. I will only add that from this time the utmost activity prevailed
to forward the completion of the forty-foot. An additional optical
workman was engaged, and preparation made for casting the second mirror.
Journeys to town were made for moulding, and at the end of January a
fine cast mirror arrived safely at Slough. Several seven-foot telescopes
were finished and sent off.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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