bitterness of my soul I
acknowledge the wisdom and goodness of God, and endeavour to be
resigned to His will. It is ungrateful not to remember the many
happy years we have enjoyed, but that very remembrance renders our
present state more desolate and dreary--presenting a sad contrast.
The great source of consolation is in the mercy of God and the
virtues of those we lament; the full assurance that no good
disposition can be lost but must be brought to perfection in a
better world. Our business is to render ourselves fit for that
blessed inheritance that we may again be united to those we mourn.

Your affectionate daughter,
MARY SOMERVILLE.

* * * * *

Somerville still held his place at the army medical board, and was now
appointed physician to Chelsea Hospital; so we left our cheerful,
comfortable house and went to reside in a government house in a very
dreary and unhealthy situation, far from all our friends, which was a
serious loss to me, as I was not a good walker, and during the whole
time I lived at Chelsea I suffered from sick headaches. Still we were
very glad of the appointment, for at this time we lost almost the whole
of our fortune, through the dishonesty of a person in whom we had the
greatest confidence.

All the time we lived at Chelsea we had constant intercourse with Lady
Noel Byron and Ada, who lived at Esher, and when I came abroad I kept up
a correspondence with both as long as they lived. Ada was much attached
to me, and often came to stay with me. It was by my advice that she
studied mathematics. She always wrote to me for an explanation when she
met with any difficulty. Among my papers I lately found many of her
notes, asking mathematical questions. Ada Byron married Lord King,
afterwards created Earl of Lovelace, a college companion and friend of
my son.

Somerville had formed a friendship with Sir Henry Bunbury when he had a
command in Sicily, and we went occasionally to visit him at Barton in
Suffolk. I liked Lady Bunbury very much; she was a niece of the
celebrated Charles Fox, and had a turn for natural history. I had made a
collection of native shells at Burntisland, but I only knew their vulgar
names; now I learnt their scientific arrangement from Lady Bunbury. Her
son, Sir Charles Bunbury, is an authority for fossil botany. The first
Pinetum I ever saw was at Barto