"_Aug. 15th._--I hastened to the spot where I was wont to find him, with the newspaper which I was to read to him. But instead I found Mrs. MONSON, Miss BALDWIN, and Mr. BULMAN, from Leeds, the grandson of my brother's earliest acquaintance in this country. I was informed my brother had been obliged to return to his room, whither I flew immediately. Lady H. and the housekeeper were with him, administering everything which could be thought of for supporting him. I found him much irritated at not being able to grant Mr. BULMAN'S request for some token of remembrance for his father. As soon as he saw me, I was sent to the library to fetch one of his last papers and a plate of the forty-foot telescope. But for the universe I could not have looked twice at what I had snatched from the shelf, and when he faintly asked if the breaking up of the Milky Way was in it, I said 'Yes,' and he looked content. I cannot help remembering this circumstance; it was the last time I was sent to the library on such an occasion. That the anxious care for his papers and workrooms never ended but with his life, was proved by his frequent whispered inquiries if they were locked and the key safe, of which I took care to assure him that they were, and the key in Lady HERSCHEL'S hands.
"After half an hour's vain attempt to support himself, my brother was obliged to consent to be put to bed, leaving no hope ever to see him rise again."
On the 25th of August, 1822, HERSCHEL died peacefully at the age of eighty-four years.
His remains lie in the little church at Upton, near Windsor, where a memorial tablet has been erected by his son. The epitaph is as follows:[30]
GULIELMUS HERSCHEL Eques Guelphicus Hanoviæ natus Angliam elegit patriam Astronomis ætatis suæ præstantissimis Merito annumeratus Ut leviora sileantur inventa Planetam ille extra Saturni orbitam Primus detexit Novis artis adjumentis innixus Quæ ipse excogitavit et perfecit Coelorum perrupit claustra Et remotiora penetrans et explorans spatia Incognitos astrorum ignes Astronomorum oculis et intellectui subjecit Qua sedulitate qua solertia Corporum et phantasmatum Extra systematis nostri fines lucentium Naturam indagaverit Quidquid paulo audacius conjecit Ingenita temperans verecundia Ultro testantur hodie æquales Vera esse quæ docuit pleraque Siquidem certiora futuris ingeniis subsidia Debitura est astronomia Agnoscent forte posteri Vitam utilem innocuam amabilem Non minus felici laborum exitu quam virtutibus Ornatam et vere eximiam Morte suis et bonis omnibus deflenda Nec tamen immatura clausit Die XXV Augusti A. D. CI[C]I[C]CCCXXII Ætatis vero suæ LXXXIV.