Page:Memoir and correspondence of Caroline Herschel (1876).djvu/59

"But every leisure moment was eagerly snatched at for resuming some work which was in progress, without taking time for changing dress, and many a lace ruffle was torn or bespattered by molten pitch, &c., besides the danger to which he continually exposed himself by the uncommon precipitancy which accompanied all his actions, of which we had a melancholy sample one Saturday evening, when both brothers returned from a concert between 11 and 12 o'clock, my eldest brother pleasing himself all the way home with being at liberty to spend the next day (except a few hours' attendance at chapel) at the turning bench, but recollecting that the tools wanted sharpening, they ran with the lantern and tools to our landlord's grindstone in a public yard, where they did not wish to be seen on a Sunday morning. ... But my brother William was soon brought back fainting by Alex with the loss of one of his finger-nails. This happened in the winter of 1775, at a house situated near Walcot turnpike, to which my brother had moved at midsummer, 1774. On a grass plot behind the house preparation was immediately made for erecting a twenty-foot telescope, for which, among seven and ten foot mirrors then in hand, one of twelve foot was preparing; this house offered more room for workshops, and a place on the roof for observing.

"During this summer I lost the only female acquaintances (not friends) I ever had an opportunity of being very intimate with by Bulmer's family returning again to Leeds. For my time was so much taken up with copying music and practising, besides attendance on my brother when polishing, since by way of keeping him alive I was constantly obliged to feed him by putting the victuals by bits into his mouth. This was once the case when, in order to finish a seven foot mirror, he had not taken his hands from it for sixteen hours toge-