[General Lafayette and all his family were extremely kind to my mother. He was her constant visitor, and we twice visited him at his country house, La Grange. He wished to persuade my mother to go there for some days, after our return from Switzerland, which we did not accomplish. The General wrote the following letter to my father:--] FROM LAFAYETTE TO DR. SOMERVILLE. LA GRANGE, _31st October, 1833_. MY DEAR SIR, I waited to answer your kind letter, for the arrival of Mr. Coke's[11] precious gift, which nobody could higher value, on every account, than the grateful farmer on whom it has been bestowed. The heifers and bull are beautiful; they have reached La Grange in the best order, and shall be tenderly attended to.... It has been a great disappointment not to see Mrs. Somerville and the young ladies before their departure. Had we not depended on their kind visit, we should have gone to take leave of them. They have had the goodness to regret the impossibility to come before their departure. Be so kind as to receive the affectionate friendship and good wishes of a family who are happy in the ties of mutual attachment that bind us to you and them.... Public interest is now fixed upon the Peninsula, and while dynasties are at civil war, and despotic or _juste milieu_ cabinets seem to agree in the fear of a genuine development of popular institutions, the matter for the friends of freedom is to know how far the great cause of Europe shall be forwarded by these royal squabbles. We shall remain at La Grange until the opening of the session, hoping that, notwithstanding your and the ladies' absence, your attention will not be quite withdrawn from our interior affairs--the sympathy shall be reciprocal. With all my heart, I am Your affectionate friend, LAFAYETTE. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 11: Mr. Coke, of Holkham, afterwards Earl of Leicester.] CHAPTER XIII. RETURN TO ENGLAND--LETTER FROM HALLAM--TREATISE ON THE FORM AND ROTATION OF THE EARTH AND PLANETS--SECOND EDITION OF "CONNEXION OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES"--LETTERS FROM MARIA EDGEWORTH, MISS BERRY, LORD BROUGHAM, MRS. MARCET, ADMIRAL SMYTH--DOUBLE STARS--ECLIPSE OF DOUBLE STARS--LETTER FROM ADMIRAL SMYTH--SIR WILLIAM HERSCHEL--NEBULAE--LETTER FROM LORD ROSSE--LETTER FROM SIR JOHN HERSCHEL--SIR JAMES SOUTH'S OBSERVATORY--MR. JOHN MURRAY--MISS BERRY--LORD DUDLEY--MR. BOWDITCH AND OTHER DISTINGUISHED AMERICANS--MRS. BROWNING WASHINGTON--LETTER FROM THE REV. DR. TUCKERMAN--SIR WILLIAM FAIRFAX ATTACKED BY HIGHWAYMEN.