I must
conclude, for I wish to say a few words to your dear mother. It
is now between eleven and twelve, and perhaps you are at this
very moment receiving the blessing of Dr. Jennings; in which I
most fervently join by saying, 'God bless you both!'"
Though eighty-three years old, Miss Herschel retained all her old powers
of memory; and in a letter to her new niece, Lady Herschel, written in
1833, she narrated some amusing reminiscences of her nephew's early
childhood.
He was only in his sixth year, she said, when she was separated for a
while from the family circle. But this did not hinder "John" and her
from remaining the most affectionate friends, and many a half or whole
holiday he spent with her, devoting it to chemical experiments, in which
all kinds of boxes, tops of tea-canisters, pepper-cruets, tea-cups, and
the like, served for the necessary vessels, and the sand-tub furnished
the matter to be analysed. Miss Herschel's task was to prevent the
introduction of water, which would have produced havoc on her carpet.
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