Note 60 — Chapter VII · SIR JOHN HERSCHEL AT THE CAPE. (continued 2)

In answer to this announcement her niece wrote: “Herschel bids me say he is quite delighted at the idea of your undertaking the family history, but he insists upon it that you prove his descent from Hercules, and I dare say in this age of relics, we could contrive to find in the rummaging of old traps turned out at Slough, a veritable piece of the old club which has by fortunate accident served as part of the ladders of the forty-foot telescope! or perhaps you remember its slipping down the mouth of the great telescope one night when it was turned in the direction of your ancestor’s constellation, as a sign that he confessed himself outshone by your labours.”