chanics' Institution was built, which I visited in 1850. Being shown into the library, I took up a book that was lying on the table, and found it was "The Connection of the Physical Sciences," and its worn binding and well-thumbed pages bore evidence of its having been largely circulated amongst working-class readers. I thought it a great tribute to the value of the book, and equally an evidence of the intelligence of Cornish working-men.
After some years, these first works were followed by her "Physical Geography;" and when old age had settled down upon her, she wrote "Molecular and Microscopic Science." Honours came from foreign lands, as well as from learned Societies at home. She was elected Honorary Member of the Royal Geographical Society, the same year that a similar honour was conferred on Miss Caroline Herschel, the sister and aunt of the two eminent astronomers Sir William and Sir John Herschel—herself no less eminent. The Royal Theresa Academy of Science elected Mrs. Somerville a member; and Geographical Societies, both in Britain and on the Continent, enrolled her honoured name in their lists.
Her correspondence was very large with all the eminent literati of her time, and she enjoyed the friendship of the distinguished men and women who made the intellectual society of the age.
A pension of two hundred pounds a year for her life was well bestowed during Sir Robert Peel's time
