Letter from Mary Cornwallis Herschel, to [John Herschel] She has John's two letters and will act accordingly. She asks him to 'attend to the Herald's pathetic appeal'. She can think of little but tomorrow morning [the solar eclipse] and asks John to bring 'a dram' of chloral hydrate and one of hypophosphite of lime. She has had visits from Captain and Mrs Stevenson, and a Miss Cox and contrasts the differences between friendliness in India and in England. She notes letters and messages, and information from Captain Stevenson on Allenby, a gunsmith who lets out carriages and horses. 11 [December 1871]