Page:Memoir and correspondence of Caroline Herschel (1876).djvu/61

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Chap. II.]
Life in Bath.
39

Holland, whence he proceeded to Hanover, failing to meet his brother as he expected. Meanwhile the sister received a letter to say that Dietrich was laid up very ill at an inn in Wapping. Alexander posted to town, removed him to a lodging, and after a fortnight's nursing, brought him to Bath, where, on his brother William's return, he found him being well cared for by his sister, who kept him to a diet of "roasted apples and barley-water." Dietrich remained in England, his brother easily procuring him employment until 1779, when he returned to Hanover, and shortly afterwards married a Miss Reif. The family now moved to a larger house, 19, New King Street,[1] which had a garden behind it, and open space down to the river. It is incidentally mentioned, "that here many interesting discoveries besides the Georgium Sidus were made."

In preparation for the oratorios to be performed during Lent, Miss Herschel mentions that she copied the scores of the "Messiah" and "Judas Maccabeus" into parts for an orchestra of nearly one hundred performers, and the vocal parts of "Samson," besides instructing the treble singers, of which she was now herself the first. On the occasion of her first public appearance, her brother presented her with ten guineas for her dress,—

  1. In this house the Georgium Sidus was discovered, 1781; a volcanic mountain in the moon, 1783. Here the forty-foot was finished, which revealed two more volcanic mountains in the moon, 1789.