I had
bought it some time before, and my sister had superintended
alterations and the addition of a room. I was much pleased thus to be
connected with the happy scenes of my youth.--From Aug. 10th to Oct.
11th I was with my wife and her sister Elizabeth Smith on the
Continent. We stayed for some time at Wiesbaden, as my nerves were
shaken by the work on the Railway Gauge Commission, and I wanted the
Wiesbaden waters. We visited various places in Germany, and made a
10-days' excursion among the Swiss Mountains. At Gotha we lodged with
Prof. Hansen for three days; and it was while staying here that I
heard from Prof. Encke (on Sept. 29th) that Galle had discovered the
expected planet. We visited Gauss at Goettingen and Miss Caroline
Herschel at Hannover. We had a very bad passage from Hamburgh to
London, lasting five days: a crank-pin broke and had to be repaired:
after four days our sea-sickness had gone off, during the gale--a
valuable discovery for me, as I never afterwards feared
sea-sickness.--On Dec. 22nd I attended the celebration of the 300th
anniversary of Trinity College."
* * * * *
The following extracts relating to the engines of the "Janus" are
taken from letters to his wife dated from Portsmouth, Jan.
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