William, now living in England with a flourishing music career, hatched a plan with his brother Alexander to give Caroline an opportunity at a new life. He proposed to the family in Hanover for Caroline to move to England so he could train her to work as a professional singer in his concerts. William asked Jacob to give Caroline beginner singing lessons, to jump start her preparation. However, Jacob shirked these duties almost immediately leaving Caroline to learn how to sing the few violin concertos she knew by herself (even going so far as to sing through a gag to not disturb the rest of the family, yeesh).

Anxious at the idea of leaving her mother and her whole family behind without her help, Caroline did everything she could to ensure they could manage in her absence including knitting enough socks to last all the family members for almost two years (damn, that’s a lotta yarn). Then in August 1772, William returned to Hanover to fetch Caroline and bring her back to Bath, England.

Now, if you think traveling in today’s world can be a nightmare at times, Caroline and William’s journey back to Bath will make you appreciate all of your delayed flights and lost baggage. For six days and six nights nonstop, William and Caroline traveled in an open air wagon, completely exposed to the elements all hours of the day, with nowhere to sleep. After arriving in a small port city in the Netherlands, they boarded a small ship to be sailed across to England. The journey was quite treacherous, with storms so harsh the ship lost its main mast. When they finally made it to the coast of England, the only way off the ship was to be literally thrown off by two burly sailors (I like to imagine they looked like Popeye).

Now if you’re thinking, “Hey they made it to England, their travels are done!” Well, you’d be wrong. They still had to travel to London and then Bath with more than 200 miles yet to go. At one point the horse pulling their wagon panicked, overturning the cart and throwing them into a ditch (because of course that would happen). Once in London, William dragged his exhausted sister to every optical shop he could find. You see, William was already becoming deeply fascinated with astronomy and was looking for ways to build his own high quality telescopes.

After two long weeks of nonstop traveling, William and Caroline finally made it to their home in Bath. Caroline promptly retreated to her new bedroom and crashed like a college student after a long night of partying, sleeping until the next afternoon. William didn’t waste any time in training and educating his sister. Over their first breakfast together, he immediately launched into a math lesson, teaching Caroline how to track the family expenses and bookkeeping. In order to get Caroline spruced up and in tip top shape for his musical performances, he gave her 2-3 music lessons a day. She learned English cooking from his housekeeper, and after several weeks was sent on her own (or so she thought) to the local market to pick up food and dry goods for the family. Unbeknownst to Caroline, her brother Alexander would secretly follow her to make sure she was staying safe (what a standup guy).

The first few months in England were quite lonely for Caroline. Speaking very little English, she found it hard to mingle in Bath society and make new friends. She missed Hanover dearly and all her family members back home. Occasionally, William would host dinners for friends and local scholars, giving Caroline the opportunity to meet new people and sing for guests. One of the ladies she met, a Mrs. Colebrook, invited her on a trip to London during the winter of 1772-73, exposing Caroline to the big city world of plays, operas, and outings. Their originally planned two week trip turned into a six week stay due to a large snowstorm. Starting to get annoyed with her company, Caroline quietly bemoaned that her companions were “very little better than idiots.” You see, regardless of her limited early education, Caroline was a sharp, no-nonsense type of gal and she had little tolerance for people who got on her nerves.

After returning from London, Caroline quickly realized that William wanted to move beyond just reading astronomy books into making discoveries of his own. He began designing telescopes along with his brother Alexander and Caroline was dismayed to see “almost every room turned into a workshop.” In addition to practicing day in and out to become a polished singer, Caroline soon found herself putting countless hours of work into helping William bring his creations to life, from helping construct telescope tubes to building the molds for mirrors out of horse dung (yes, you read that correctly).