He
died at half-past two on the afternoon of the 2nd of September, 1865,
aged sixty years and one month. He was buried in Mount Jerome
Cemetery on the 7th of September.
Many were the letters and other more public manifestations of the
feelings awakened by Hamilton's death. Sir John Herschel wrote to
the widow:--
"Permit me only to add that among the many scientific friends whom
time has deprived me of, there has been none whom I more deeply
lament, not only for his splendid talents, but for the excellence of
his disposition and the perfect simplicity of his manners--so great,
and yet devoid of pretensions."
De Morgan, his old mathematical crony, as Hamilton affectionately
styled him, also wrote to Lady Hamilton:--
"I have called him one of my dearest friends, and most truly; for I
know not how much longer than twenty-five years we have been in
intimate correspondence, of most friendly agreement or disagreement,
of most cordial interest in each other. And yet we did not know each
other's faces. I met him about 1830 at Babbage's breakfast table,
and there for the only time in our lives we conversed. I saw him, a
long way off, at the dinner given to Herschel (about 1838) on his
return from the Cape and there we were not near enough, nor on that
crowded day could we get near enough, to exchange a word.
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