eflection, 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
hammering. On investigating into its object, she found that it was the
continuation of the labour of many days, during which he had undermined
the ground about the corner of the house, had entirely removed the
corner-stone, and was zealously toiling to overthrow the next! His aunt
gave the alarm, and old John Wiltshire, a favourite carpenter, ran to
the spot, exclaiming, "Heaven bless the boy! if he is not going to pull
the house down!"

* * * * *

In 1834, Sir John, as already stated, made a voyage to the Cape of Good
Hope, in order to undertake a series of observations of the southern
heavens. His aunt had now reached the ripe old age of eighty-four, an
age attained by few,--and when attained, bringing with it in almost
every case a painful diminution of physical energy, and a corresponding
decline in mental force. But such was not the case with this remarkable
woman. She still continued an active correspondence with her nephew, and
manifested the liveliest interest in all his movements. It is
astonishing to mark the vivacity and clearness of the letters she wrote
at this advanced period of her life. Thus, on the 1st of May 1834, she
writes to Sir John:--

"Both yourself and my dear niece urged me to write often, and
to write always twice; but, alas! I could not overcome the
reluctance I felt of [at] telling you that it is over with me
for getting up at eight or nine o'clock, dressing myself,
eating my dinner alone without an appetite, falling asleep over
a novel (I am obliged to lay down to recover the fatigue of the
morning's exertions), awaking with nothing but the prospect of
the trouble of getting into bed, where very seldom I get above
two hours' sleep. It is enough to make a parson swear! To this
I must add, I found full employment for the few moments, when I
could rouse myself from a melancholy lethargy, to spend in
looking over my store of astronomical and other memorandums of
upwards of fifty years' collecting."

Later in the year she writes:--