illiam then proposed that Alexander should come over from Hanover and
join him at Bath, which was done. Next they wanted to rescue their
sister Caroline from her humdrum existence, but this was a more
difficult matter. Caroline's journal gives an account of her life at
this time that is instructive. Here are a few extracts from it:--

"My father wished to give me something like a polished education,
but my mother was particularly determined that it should be a
rough, but at the same time a useful one; and nothing further she
thought was necessary but to send me two or three months to a
sempstress to be taught to make household linen....

"My mother would not consent to my being taught French, ... so all
my father could do for me was to indulge me (and please himself)
sometimes with a short lesson on the violin, when my mother was
either in good humour or out of the way.... She had cause for
wishing me not to know more than was necessary for being useful in
the family; for it was her certain belief that my brother William
would have returned to his country, and my eldest brother not have
looked so high, if they had had a little less learning."

However, seven years after the death of their father, William went over
to Germany and returned to England in triumph, bringing Caroline with
him: she being then twenty-two.

So now began a busy life in Bath. For Caroline the work must have been
tremendous. For, besides having to learn singing, she had to learn
English. She had, moreover, to keep accounts and do the marketing.

When the season at Bath was over, she hoped to get rather more of her
brother William's society; but he was deep in optics and astronomy, used
to sleep with the books under his pillow, read them during meals, and
scarcely ever thought of anything else.

He was determined to see for himself all the astronomical wonders; and
there being a small Gregorian reflector in one of the shops, he hired
it. But he was not satisfied with this, and contemplated making a
telescope 20 feet long. He wrote to opticians inquiring the price of a
mirror suitable, but found there were none so large, and that even the
smaller ones were beyond his means. Nothing daunted, he determined to
make some for himself. Alexander entered into his plans: tools, hones,
polishers, and all sorts of rubbish were imported into the house, to the
sister's dismay, who says:--

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