apartment, and now he has taken it home to finish. 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.
For his first notion of building, "John" was indebted to the affection
of his aunt, who, on his second or third birthday, lifted him in the
trenches to lay the south corner-stone of the building which was added
to Sir William's original house at Slough. On further reflection, she
felt convinced that this incident occurred in the second year of her
nephew's age, for she remembered being obliged to use "a deal of
coaxing" to make him part with the money he was to lay on the
comer-stone.

About the same time, when she was sitting near him one day, listening to
his prattle, her attention was drawn to his repeated and formidable