It is probable that Caroline discovered a ninth comet but did not recognise it for what it was. In July and August 1783 she twice observed what she described as “a rich spot” (a phrase she uses nowhere else) in the region of Equuleus, and there are no nebulae in the region to fit this description. See HoskinMichael, “Caroline Herschel as observer”, JHA, xxxvi (2005), 373–406, Appendix 2 (by MarsdenBrian G.), “Elements of the possible comet”.
2.
For a biography of HerschelCaroline, see Princess.
3.
Memoir, 346.
4.
Caroline Herschel to John Herschel, 21Aug1838, BL Egerton 3762.
5.
Around the time of Caroline’s fourth birthday both she and her brother Frantz caught smallpox. Frantz died; as for Caroline, “though recovered, I did not escape being totally disfigured and suffering some injury in my left eye”, CHA, 22. (I have throughout corrected Caroline’s spelling.)
6.
Caroline’s surviving dress is just under 47 inches from the back of the neck to the hem, and from the back of the neck to the top of the head is typically about 10 inches. The distance from the hem to the top of her head, therefore, was about 57 inches, to which must be added whatever distance there was between the hem and the sole of her feet. If the hem touched the floor, her height was 4ft 9ins, and if not then a little more. Princess, 6.
7.
CHA, 47.
8.
CHA, 31. She is “isolated” because she had quit William’s home and was living alone, see below.
9.
CHA, 34.
10.
Discoverers, 9–10.
11.
For biographies of Isaac and his wife Anna, and of each of their ten children, see HoskinMichael, The Herschels of Hanover (Cambridge, 2007).
12.
CHA, 34.
13.
CHA, 108.
14.
CHA, 34.
15.
CHA, 34.
16.
Caroline Herschel to Margaret Herschel, 24Sept1838, BL Egerton 3762.
17.
CHA, 102
18.
CHA, 34.
19.
CHA, 37.
20.
CHA, 37.
21.
CHA, 114.
22.
CHA, 114. A bugle is a cylindrical glass bead used for ornamentation.
23.
Caroline Herschel to Margaret Herschel, 24Sept1838, BL Egerton 3762.
24.
CHA, 109.
25.
CHA, 41.
26.
CHA, 47.
27.
CHA, 47.
28.
Princess, 28–9.
29.
SmithRobert, A compleat system of opticks (Cambridge, 1738). We are not told exactly when William purchased Smith’s Opticks, but his interest in the shops of opticians makes it almost certain that the purchase occurred in the weeks before his visit to Hanover.
30.
CHA, 119.
31.
CHA, 118.
32.
Discoverers, 19–21.
33.
CHA, 50, 120.
34.
CHA, 121–2.
35.
CHA, 55, 128; 124–6; 129.
36.
CHA, 120–1.
37.
CHA, 52–3.
38.
CHA, 129.
39.
CHA, 57.
40.
RAS W.5/12.1, expt 210.
41.
CHA, 52.
42.
CHA, 127, 131.
43.
CHA, 55.
44.
Princess, 48–9.
45.
Discoverers, 37–8.
46.
Discoverers, 60–1.
47.
CHA, 65.
48.
Discoverers, 46–9.
49.
Discoverers, 49–51.
50.
Discoverers, chap. 4.
51.
Discoverers, 61–8.
52.
CHA, 70–1; Discoverers, 82–3; Princess, 74–7.
53.
CHA, 71.
54.
Discoverers, 84–6; Princess, 77–9.
55.
Discoverers, 93; Princess, 88.
56.
Published in Philosophical transactions, lxxvi (1786), 459–99; lxxix (1789), 212–55; xcii (1802), 477–528.
57.
The letters of Horace Walpole, ed. by WrightJ., iv (London, 1840), 358.
Diary & letters of Madame D’Arblay [Fanny Burney], ed. by BarrattCharlotte (London, 1905), iv, 113. For William’s courtship, see HoskinMichael, The Herschel partnership (Cambridge, 2003), 91–4.
61.
Court and private life in the time of Queen Charlotte, by PapendiekCharlotte L. H. (London, 1887), i, 275.
62.
CHA, 96.
63.
Discoverers, 135–6; Princess, 115–17.
64.
Very surprisingly, Caroline in 1803 accepted from Mary a quarterly allowance of £10. Princess, 150.
65.
The Herschel chronicle, by LubbockConstance A. (Cambridge, 1933), 176.
MaskelyneNevil, writing to PigottNathaniel on 6December1793, says that even with the large sweeper that William later made for her, she could sweep one-quarter of the sky in a single night. SteinickeWolfgang points out to me that this may be over-optimistic. Royal Astronomical Society Pigott Archives, Letter 60; Princess, 127–8.
71.
HoskinMichael, “George III’s purchase of Herschel reflectors”, JHA, xxxix (2008), 121–4; Princess, 98.
72.
Caroline gives a detailed account of what she achieved in William’s absence in CHA, 82–91.
73.
CHA, 86.
74.
Discoverers, 130–2; Princess, 104–12.
75.
Mary was settled in the Slough house by the time her son John was born.
76.
HerschelJohn, “Recovery of dates”, Herschel Family Archives.
77.
Hoskin, “Caroline Herschel as observer” (ref. 1); Discoverers, chap. 9; Princess, 127–39.
78.
RAS C.1/1.2, 51.
79.
HerschelCaroline, “Account of the discovery of a new comet”, Philosophical transactions, lxxxvi (1796), 131–2.
80.
Caroline Herschel to Joseph Banks, 17Aug1797, Memoir, 94–5.
81.
HerschelCaroline, “Extracts from a daybook kept during the years 1797 & 1821”, BL microfilm M/588(4).
