MY DEAR SOMERVILLE,

Since our arrival here, I have, I know in many instances, maintained
or established the character of a bad correspondent; and really it
is not an inconvenient character to have established. Only, in your
case, I should be very sorry to appear in that, or any other
negligent or naughty light; but you, I know, will allow for the
circumstances which have occasioned my silence. Meanwhile, I am not
sorry that the execution of an intention I had more than once formed
should have been deferred, till we read in the papers of the
well-judged and highly creditable notice (creditable I mean to the
government _pro tempore_) which His Majesty has been pleased to take
of Mrs. Somerville's elaborate works. Although the Royal notice is
not quite so swift as the lightning in the selection of its objects,
it agrees with it in this, that it is attracted by the loftiest; and
though what she has performed may seem so natural and easy to
herself, that she may blush to find it fame; all the rest of the
world will agree with me in rejoicing that merit of that kind is
felt and recognised at length in the high places of the earth. This,
and the honourable mention of Airy by men of both parties in the
House of Commons about the same time, are things that seem to mark
the progress of the age we live in; and I give Peel credit for his
tact in perceiving this mode of making a favourable impression on
the public mind.

We are all going on very comfortably, and continue to like the
Cape as a place of (temporary) residence as much or more than at
first. The climate is so very delicious.... The stars are most
propitious, and, astronomically speaking, I can now declare the
climate to be most excellent. Night after night, for weeks and
months, with hardly an interruption, of _perfect_ astronomical
weather, discs of stars reduced almost to points, and tranquilly
gliding across the field of your telescope. It is really a treat,
such as occurs once or perhaps twice a year in England--hardly more.
I had almost forgotten that by a recent vote of the Astronomical
Society I can now claim Mrs. Somerville as a _colleague_. Pray make
my compliments to her in that capacity, and tell her that I hope to
meet her there at some future session....

Yours very faithf