Faraday to Christian Friedrich Schoenbein   7 May 1857

Royal Institution | 7 May 1857.

My dear Schoenbein

On receipt of your last¹ I spoke to Miss Hornblower who said she had written fully either to you or Miss Schoenbein and had indeed been expecting an answer as she was obliged to keep her own arrangements open until she heard from you she seemed glad to learn how the decision went but you must judge from her letter whether it requires a direct answer.- I think she said that in it she had spoken of time &c &c & I think she mentioned the time but whether it was September or any other month I cannot now tell - I forget every thing and I am obliged to be content to forget and this makes me anxious that no point of the arrangement should depend upon what I may say but that direct communication should convey the necessary information. I should almost certainly introduce some blunder - I am daily occupied in making and repairing mistakes even in the very house I live in.

I have every conviction that Miss Schoenbein will like Miss Hornblower & when she knows her will soon highly esteem her. She is a woman of business but she has always left a strong & kind impression on the minds of those ladies who have been with her from abroad & I have no doubt it will be so with Your daughter. It can be no slight thing for you to part with her for a while but you may be sure that at Miss Hornblower’s she will have a safe home. We shall see what we can of her though our residence here & the circumstances of our having no house cuts short our means of seeing friends as we could wish - but all that must be left - Let me say a word of sympathy on our part to Mrs. Schoenbein under the coming circumstances:- for the mother cannot but be anxious on the matter. My wife is an invalid at present & not yet out of her room or I am sure she would join me in kindest thoughts to you all.

Ever My dear Schoenbein | Yours | M. Faraday