FROM MISS HERSCHEL TO J. F. W. HERSCHEL, ESQ.
Hanover, April 14, 1823.
I hasten to send this sheet, which is but this moment come to hand, and the post within an hour of leaving Hanover. I begin to fear that I shall not hear from you till you send me an acknowledgment of having received the certificate, which we are not able to obtain till after the 10th of April and 10th of October, but January and July it is the 5th. I assure you I would rather go without the money than be so long without hearing from you, or have a line to express your pleasure for the present I offered you and Mr. Babbage by sending the books by the Christmas messenger, of which I, at this moment, have no information that they have been delivered. By the Easter messenger I have sent some metwurst [a Hanoverian delicacy], which I hope you and your dear mother will find good, but when they are once cut they must be eaten soon, else they are dry and lose all their flavour.
*****
The Germans are very busy about the fame of your dear father; there does not pass a month but something appears in print, and Dr. Groskopf saw in den gelehrten Zeitungen that Professor Pfaff had translated all your dear father's papers from the Phil. Trans, into German, and which will be published in Dresden. I wish he had left it for some good astronomer to do the same. Pray let me know how you and your dear mother are in health; I am not well, but have a severe cold at present, but am always and still your affectionate aunt,
Car. Herschel.
The following letter from the Princess Sophia of Gloucester is a pleasing memorial of the kindness and
