yC (6227 
 
riM * 
 
 A 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
Ill 
 
 ") 
 
ESSAYS 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE AND BIOGRAPHICAL 
 
Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers, 
 Whose loves in higher love endure ; 
 What souls possess themselves so pure, 
 
 Or is there blessedness like theirs ? " 
 
 —In Memoriam. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/essaysdescriptivOOpresrich 
 
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 WalkaT<!iCccl<n'pn.pksc. 
 
ESSAYS 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE AND BIOGEAPHICAL 
 
 BT 
 
 GKACE, LADY PRESTWICH 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 ' THE HARBOUR BAR : A TALK OF SCOTTISH LIFE ' ; 
 
 AND ' ENGA ' 
 
 WITH A MEMOIR BY HER SISTER 
 
 LOUISA E. MILNE 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 
 MCMI 
 
962. 
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 My grateful acknowledgments are due to the Editors 
 of ' Blackwood's Magazine/ ' Every Girl's Magazine/ 
 * Good Words/ and the ' Leisure Hour/ for kind per- 
 mission to reprint articles from these periodicals ; also 
 to Mr Horace B. Woodward, F.R.S., for valuable help 
 in the preparation of this volume. 
 
 L. E. MILNE. 
 
 St Moritz, January 1901. 
 
 ■^rm^ •'\^.^'^t^ m 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 FAGB 
 
 MEMOIR 1 
 
 I. JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES : BEING SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OP THE HISTORY OP THE DISCOVERY OF FLINT IMPLEMENTS . 73 
 
 (•Blackwood's Magazine,' vol. civil., June 1895, pp. 939-948.) 
 
 EVENINGS WITH MADAME MOHL : REMINISCENCES OF A PARIS SALON 93 
 
 (' Blackwood's Magazine,' vol. cliv., July 1893, pp. 41-48.) 
 
 OUR WHITE DEAL BOX, AND THE TROUBLE IT GAVE ; OR, HOW THE 
 CUSTOM-HOUSE AT NAPLES DEALT WITH SOME CASTS OP FOSSIL 
 ANIMALS ........ 108 
 
 (* Leisure Hour,' Part 435, March 1888, pp. 183-186.) 
 
 AN EVENING WITH MRS SOMERVILLE ..... 122 
 (' Leisure Hour,' Part 491, November 1892, pp. 38-42.) 
 
 IN MANTUA DURING THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN WAR , . . 135 
 
 II. STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 THE BANKS OP THE PINDHORN , . . . • 1^7 
 
 THROUGH THE PASS OF GLENCOE . . . • .175 
 
 {' Every Girl's Magazine/ No. 80, August 1885, pp. 516-620.) 
 
 LOCHABER AND THE PARALLEL ROADS . . . .186 
 
 (* Good Words/ 1879, pp. 119-123.) 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 III. GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. SHORT STUDIES IN PHYSIOGRAPHY . 201 
 
 ('Good Words,' 1883, pp. 209-212, 438-441, 641-643.) 
 
 CHANNEL TUNNELS AND CHANNEL BRIDGES .... 229 
 ('Good Words,' 1881, pp. 210-216.) 
 
 IV. AN OXFORDSHIRE RESTING-PLACE. 
 
 EWELME AND ITS ALMSHOUSE ..... 251 
 
 Index 
 
ILLUSTEATIONS. 
 
 GRACE, LADY PRESTWICH .... Frontispiece 
 
 DR HUGH FALCONER, F.R.S. ...... 2 
 
 (From 'Life and Letters of Sir J. Prestwich,' 1899, p. 110.) 
 
 M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES ...... 74 
 
 (Ibid., p. 118.) 
 
 MADAME MOHL. ....... 94 
 
 (From K. O'Meara's * Madame Mohl, her Salon and her Friends,' 1885, 
 Frontispiece. ) 
 
 MRS SOMERVILLE . . . . . . .124 
 
 (From 'Leisure Hour,' November 1892, p. 42.) 
 
 VIEW OF GLEN ROY WITH THE PARALLEL ROADS . . . 188 
 
 (From 'Good Words,' February 1879, p. 121.) 
 
 GEOLOGICAL MAP AND SECTIONS OF PROPOSED CHANNEL TUNNELS 242 
 
 (From ' Good Words,' March 1881, pp. 213-216.) 
 
 THE ALMSHOUSE, EWELME ...... 254 
 
MEMOIK 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 This volume contains articles that were contributed by 
 Lady Prestwich to various magazines from 1879 to 
 1895, and it includes some unpublished papers, which 
 have an additional pathetic interest, as they were writ- 
 ten when she was patiently struggling against visibly 
 declining health. These essays give evidence of Lady 
 Prestwich's enthusiasm for the truly good and beautiful 
 in life, of her impressionable artistic nature, and of her 
 varied gifts ; but in actual contact with the world, the 
 sweetness and charm of a rare personality were en- 
 hanced by a most unselfish love for her fellow-beings, 
 as well as a deep sympathy and far-reaching influence 
 with them in their joys and sorrows. "The earth is 
 the Lord's as the heaven is ; we are alike His creatures 
 here and yonder," was a thought ever present with 
 her. Devoted and loving in the relations of wife, 
 daughter, and sister, and while actively helping her 
 husband. Sir Joseph Prestwich, in his scientific labours, 
 she still found time for works of benevolence, visiting 
 the sick and poor in their homes or in the hospital, 
 upholding the higher education of women, and taking 
 a deep interest in the question of their employment. 
 With all these claims, the daily letter to her former 
 
 A 
 
2 MEMOIR. 
 
 home, to her widowed mother, was never neglected ; 
 nor did Grace Prestwich spare herself, if, by the sac- 
 rifice of time, she could benefit or give pleasure to 
 others. 
 
 Grace Anne Milne, afterwards Lady Prestwich, was 
 born on the 18th December 1832. She was the eldest 
 child of James Milne, Esq., J. P., of Findhorn, Moray- 
 shire, and his wife, Louisa Falconer, a descendant of 
 an old Scottish family, one of whom was Colin Fal- 
 coner, Bishop of Moray, 1680-1686. Another, a Puritan 
 member of Mrs Milne's family, in Covenanting times, 
 had been summoned to Edinburgh to answer for her 
 belief, but she was thrown from her horse on the 
 journey and completely disabled. This accident may 
 have saved her life, as it rendered the long ride to 
 Edinburgh impossible. 
 
 Grace is described as a very attractive, bright child, 
 endowed with the sterling qualities of head and heart 
 which made her father esteemed and beloved, and with 
 a share of her mother's beauty and generous qualities. 
 In 1837 Mrs Milne's brother, Dr Hugh Falconer, the 
 eminent botanist and palaeontologist, was sent to Cash- 
 mere by the Government of India, and in a long letter 
 to his father, dated " Camp near MuzafFarabad, between 
 Cashmere and the Indus, September 17th, 1837," there 
 is an interesting account of his reception by the Ma- 
 harajah Eunjeet Singh at Lahore, of a journey of fif- 
 teen days with Captain Burnes's mission, then en route 
 from Attock to Cabul, and of Dr Falconer's own wan- 
 derings in Afghanistan, when, as a precaution, he was 
 disguised, and on one occasion " was taken for a pilgrim 
 going to Mecca to worship at the shrine of Mahomet, 
 and on another an old woman gave him her benedic- 
 tion as a Dowranee or Afghan nobleman." In the same 
 
Dk HUGH FALCONER, F.R.S. 
 
MEMOIR. 3 
 
 letter Dr Falconer refers to his little niece, then four 
 years old: "I allude to Gracie being able to read the 
 New Testament. I heard from Sandy that she was a 
 lovely infant. It must be delightful to you and my 
 mother and aunt to hear a chapter read by the little 
 pet. Tell my mother to give her a kiss from me." 
 Dr Falconer wintered in Cashmere with the intention 
 of crossing over into Thibet when weather and snow 
 permitted, and in a letter addressed to his parents on 
 the 15th February 1838 he again mentions Grace, and 
 sends affectionate messages to her mother. '* I am very 
 happy," he writes, " to hear such agreeable accounts of 
 Louisa's happiness and prosperity. ... I imagine my 
 father will have schooled Gracie into a thorough re- 
 collection of the Shorter Catechism by this time." 
 Hugh Falconer s mother had been all gentleness to her 
 gifted son, who even as a boy showed an inextinguish- 
 able taste for botany, and was wont to ramble over the 
 country collecting wild-flowers. But more than once, 
 when little Hugh's prolonged absence was a cause of 
 serious anxiety to Mrs Falconer, an elder brother 
 severely punished him for the disquietude he had 
 occasioned their mother. Monday had been always 
 Black Monday to these boys, as although their father 
 exempted them from a flogging on the strictly kept 
 Sunday, all arrears for youthful offences were made up 
 early the next morning. 
 
 At six years of age Grace Milne was placed as a 
 boarder at school, and when a girl of tw^elve she could 
 write down from memory any sermon that she heard, 
 to the great delight of her father and mother. Grace's 
 education went on without interruption at home and 
 at school, her gentle disposition winning many new 
 friends among schoolfellows in London and elsewhere : 
 
4 MEMOIR. 
 
 one of these was Mrs J. D. Murdoch, nee Julia Grant. 
 Her teacher's reports credited Grace with ability and in- 
 dustry, and above all with great amiability of character. 
 She had a gift for taking portraits, and after school 
 days were over and she had returned home to Abbey- 
 side (now known as Kinloss House), adjoining the old 
 Abbey of Kinloss, her parents and sisters became her 
 models, with successful results. In after -years this 
 talent took another direction, and Grace diligently 
 sketched geological specimens for Dr Falconer, and 
 later on diagrams for her husband's lectures at Oxford. 
 Some of the illustrations in the work of the latter on 
 Geology^ were also due to her. 
 
 With Miss M'Donald, her sisters' esteemed friend 
 and governess, she was on intimate terms through 
 life, and a friendship sprang up with Miss Harriet 
 Stephen (Mrs Barclay) which was highly prized by 
 Grace Milne. In a recent letter Mrs Barclay pays an 
 affectionate tribute to Grace's memory : — 
 
 " I frequently went over to Kinloss to stay with my 
 brother, the minister of that parish. It was then such 
 a pleasure to me to meet her and to have her for a 
 companion. She was a very delightful one, so clever, 
 so kind and bright and cheerful. I spent many happy 
 evenings at Abbeyside, where she was the life of the 
 party and looked up to by all who knew her. I was 
 particularly struck with her love and devotion to both 
 her parents. . . . We occasionally had a walk together, 
 but oftener I looked forward to her spending the even- 
 ing with myself and my brother at the Manse." 
 
 Mrs Barclay accompanied her husband, Dr Alex- 
 
 1 Geology, Chemical, Physical, and Stratigraphical. By Joseph Prest- 
 wich, M.A., F.E.S., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in the University of 
 Oxford. 2 vols. Clarendon Press, 1886 and 1888. 
 
M]^MOIR. 5 
 
 ander Barclay, 43rd ; Light Infantry, to India, after 
 her marriage, so that early in life the friends were 
 separated. Mrs Barclay continues : — 
 
 " Very delightful it was again to meet . . . and find 
 her the same loving friend of former years. She was 
 even, by that time, more refined and a more beautiful 
 character than ever. . . . Every one who knew Grace 
 loved and admired her. She was an exceptionally fine 
 character, full of every Christian grace and natural 
 amiability too. She certainly was one in a thousand, 
 and I felt it a privilege to be counted among her 
 friends." 
 
 The interest that Dr Falconer had taken in his 
 intelligent young niece, when he was at home on 
 furlough, did not decrease after his return to India. 
 
 Dr Falconer to G, Milne, 
 
 " Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, 
 \Qth January 1854. 
 
 "My dear Grace, — I wrote to you very hurriedly 
 last mail, and fear that some of my remarks may 
 have startled you. I wish therefore to make my mean- 
 ing more clear. 
 
 ** When you are asked to attend a lecture on any 
 scientific subject you go for an exercise of reason. It 
 has never yet been pretended that there has been a 
 divine revelation expounding the knowledge of the 
 natural world. The Almighty has given us reason, 
 and left us, by the adequate exercise of that power, 
 to investigate the laws and order of creation. Take 
 astronomy, and see what has been done in it. Is there 
 any educated person now living that believes * that the 
 sun was made to rule by day, and the moon by night,' 
 as servile attendants on the earth ? No — not one. 
 
6 MEMOIR. 
 
 Does any one now believe that the sun rolls round the 
 earth ? No : yet in former times the universal belief 
 of mankind at the present day was denounced as a 
 heresy opposed to the Bible. Geology is now passing 
 through, or rather it has passed, the ordeal that 
 astronomy did in the days of Galileo. When the 
 ignorant and bigoted fail in reason and argument, 
 they raise the yell of intolerance and charge the 
 doctrine with injidelity. The odium of the term 
 serves their end for a time, and what follows? This 
 denounced infidel doctrine, after the lapse of a few 
 years, becomes the accepted faith of all mankind, 
 philosophical and religious. When, therefore, in a 
 good cause, the imputation of injidelity is raised, one 
 need not be ashamed of it. There can be no two 
 truths in nature opposed to each other. As regards 
 the creation of the world, the evidence is as clear 
 that millions and millions of years must have elapsed 
 between the first appearance of life on the earth and 
 the present day, as that you and I possess eyes and 
 ears and have a living existence. The difi'erence 
 merely is, that the evidence is not of the same nature. 
 The one is complete, the other fragmentary, but equally 
 significant and strong. For instance, a tooth or the 
 end of a joint, found in a rock, is as conclusive evi- 
 dence of the former existence of an animal as if all 
 the structure — skin, flesh and blood, and living limbs 
 — were before us. The only difi'erence is that in the 
 one case the evidence is cumulative and complete in 
 every detail, while in the other it is fragmentary and 
 inductive, but equally clear and conclusive in both. 
 For the Almighty has so ordained it that reason can 
 safely reproduce all that has been lost, and restore to 
 the tooth all that was correlative to it in life. But 
 
MEMOIR. 7 
 
 mind you, that what I have said here bears solely 
 upon our knowledge of the physical world, and not 
 upon doctrines of faith for our moral and religious 
 guidance. But I must not preach too long on this 
 head. ... I have written to Mrs Sclanders by this 
 mail about the relics of her poor brother. . . . 
 
 "Make offer of my love to all at Abbeyside, and 
 believe me, my dear Grace, your ever affectionate 
 uncle, H. Falconer." 
 
 Mrs Ewart, a sister of Mrs Sclanders, was another 
 valued friend : she was President of the Woman's 
 Foreign Missionary Association of the Presbyterian 
 Church in Canada (Western Division) from 1881 until 
 her death in 1897. 
 
 When on a visit to his mother and sister in Glasgow, 
 Grace Milne became engaged to George M'Call, Esq. 
 Soon after, she wrote to Miss M'Call : "I did not tell 
 him all the golden opinions he won during his short 
 visit here. Mamma and all were delighted with him, 
 and they are all of my own opinion that there is nobody 
 like him." Their wedding took place on the 18th 
 October 1854, but Grace's happiness was short-lived : 
 Mr M^Call died suddenly on the 15th March 1856, and 
 the young widow had also the misfortune to lose her 
 infant son. These bereavements and the long illness 
 and death of an uncle, Alexander Falconer, by whose 
 sickbed she lovingly watched for weeks, told with 
 depressing effect upon Mrs M' Call's strength. But she 
 did not indulge in selfish grief. She had returned to 
 her mother's home, Abbeyside ; and as her brother, 
 Eobert Milne, was preparing for a military examination, 
 Grace studied along with him : to find that she could 
 be of service was a cause of thankfulness, and she 
 
8 MEMOIE. 
 
 expresses herself delighted at his anxiety to improve. 
 Kobert, on his part, when at leisure, would drive his 
 mother and sisters to the banks of the Findhorn, where 
 it was one of their greatest enjoyments to wander for 
 hours in the woods by that lovely river, which Grace 
 describes so charmingly. An undercurrent of deep 
 grief is betrayed by Grace in a letter to her mother-in- 
 law : " I am better, but feel so crushed. At times the 
 old recollections are overpowering, and I have lost the 
 control I used to have. . . . But it is unkind to write 
 in this strain." Some years later Grace thus recalls past 
 sorrows : — 
 
 "Since the sad summons I realised that a great 
 change had come : the things of earth had waxed duller 
 and dimmer, but heaven was now clearer and nearer — 
 oh, so much nearer ! Are the laws of the spiritual 
 world like those of the physical, and does gravitation 
 apply to both ? Do we with our earthward tendency, 
 ever seeking to take root and rest in earth, need 
 powerful forces to wrench us violently from it ? When 
 by the removal of our dearest ties our hold of it is 
 loosened, do we, with our feet still on earth, keep cling- 
 ing to those unseen cords of love that stretch down from 
 above to draw us heavenwards — Christwards ? " 
 
 Dr Falconers letters in 1858 urge the advantages of 
 foreign travel, — 
 
 " Not to wed you to the frivolous enjoyments of life, 
 but to enable you to judge for yourself Till you had 
 done so, I could not look upon you in another light than 
 a demure little Puritan, whose strength lay in the 
 ignorance of her own limited experience. . . . There's a 
 home compliment for you. ... I shall not be pleased 
 certainly if you push the privilege too far, and turn nun 
 and take the veil. But you may eschew all the vanities 
 
MEMOIR. 9 
 
 of life, turn Sister of Mercy, and attend the hospitals 
 under Miss Nightingale's banner. But I must bargain 
 for one thing. There must be no parade about it. . . . 
 It must be the religion of the heart and not of external 
 formalities, doing good works for the sake of good in 
 your day and generation, and not talking demurely 
 about a future state ! . . . With the mere formalistic 
 profession of religious creed I have no sympathy. From 
 the incessant contact I have had through life with every 
 conceivable form of human belief — Pagan, Moham- 
 medan, and Christian — I have learnt the virtue of 
 toleration. . . . The anchor of my faith in the truths 
 of Christianity has no concern with the embittered 
 interpretation of abstract dogmas among diflferent creeds 
 as a means of salvation, but upon the purity of the 
 Christian faith, and upon the doctrines of the meek and 
 lowly Jesus as a rule of conduct in life. I consign no 
 man to eternal perdition because the reason with which 
 the Almighty has endowed him leads him to think 
 differently upon some abstract dogmas from myself, nor 
 do I heed much the denunciation by him which would 
 consign me to the same lot." 
 
 A short allegory found among Grace M'Call's MSS. 
 probably had reference to this date : — 
 
 " As I lay half dreaming, half waking, in the silent 
 hours of the night — for there can be a lull even in the 
 din of this mighty London — nought broke the stillness 
 save the heavy tread of some hurrying foot-passenger, 
 or the occasional swift transit of a solitary vehicle 
 rattling noisily on the causeway under my window. 
 As I lay half waking, half musing on the listless waste 
 of my aimless life, thinking that I was as a useless weed 
 in the garden of well -growing plants and trees, a 
 shadowy Form appeared near my pillow, bearing one 
 
10 MEMOIR. 
 
 tangled mass of silk and down. It spoke no language, 
 but its mute appeal did not need the aid of words, as 
 it pointed to the unspun material of many tints which 
 was to be woven into a web. 
 
 " * How can I weave a tissue ? ' said I fretfully and 
 yet without words, ^except one of grey and joyless hue, 
 for you know that my years have been steeped and 
 dyed in sorrow?' 
 
 " But the Form pointed silently to the glittering coils 
 of silver and golden thread which had gladdened the 
 greyness of many days, the sad and sombre tone of my 
 web only revealing the glory of my blessings. And I 
 drew the skeins of many colours to me, for I was con- 
 strained by a will superior to my own, while the Form, 
 seeing that its lessons had already touched my con- 
 science, slowly vanished." 
 
 Mrs M'Call's anxiety about her brother, Eobert 
 Milne, then with the 10th Foot, is apparent in a letter 
 to Miss M'Call :— 
 
 Grace M'Call to Miss M'CalL 
 
 " [Ventnor] ^nd June 1858. 
 
 "My dear Annie, — . . . We have had another 
 letter from Eobert, written after the capture of Luck- 
 now. He said it was a wonderful escape ; the balls 
 were flying thick over his head, and about 1000 of the 
 rebels were killed. His letter was from Selimpore en 
 route to Azimghur, which I see has been successfully 
 relieved by Sir Edward Lugard. Eobert says the 
 troops under Sir Edward Lugard had marched twenty- 
 seven miles the day he wrote, that for six weeks they 
 would likely on an average march fourteen to fifteen 
 miles a-day. His letter was not long, for, poor fellow, 
 he was tired and sleepy, but he wrote to my mother 
 
MEMOIR. 11 
 
 to let US know he was alive. We see by the papers 
 that the 10th Foot distino-uished itself at the takins: of 
 Lueknow. Kobert mentioned that many of his brother 
 officers were ill from fatigue and want of sleep, and that 
 many poor soldiers had fallen out of the march that 
 day. You can imagine how thankful to God we are to 
 hear that, notwithstanding all his fatigues and perils, 
 he was tolerably well when he wrote. ... I see that Sir 
 E. Lugard, after successfully expelling the rebels from 
 Azimghur, had closely followed them, and had crossed 
 the Ganges. I hope there will soon be another letter. 
 All the troops present at the taking of Lueknow are to 
 have six months' pay. Eobert says they march gener- 
 ally at 12 o'clock midnight, and encamp by 9 o'clock 
 in the morning, before the heat of the sun ; they carry 
 a loaded revolver and their swords. . . . — Believe me, 
 my dear Annie, most affectionately yours, 
 
 Grace A. M^Call." 
 
 At last Dr Falconer took his niece away from the sad 
 associations at home on a prolonged tour abroad, and 
 an amusing letter gives the details of the proposed 
 journey through France and Italy : — 
 
 Dr H, Falconer to Grcice M'CalL 
 
 ** 31 Sackville Street, W., 25th Sept. 1858. 
 
 " My dear Grace, — I am loath to the last degree to 
 leave England at present, as I have so much unfinished 
 work on hand ; but I have already had a reminder that 
 the least check or cold will lay me up for the winter. 
 I do not like the idea of travelling alone, and it has 
 occurred to my obtuse head that if you would accom- 
 pany me it might be a pleasant arrangement for us 
 both. The Deductive Mind will at once leap to the 
 
12 MEMOIR. 
 
 just perception of the case. . . . The Inductive is now 
 growing old and stupid, and requires some one to watch 
 over his declining years ; the Deductive Mind is young, 
 lively, and discreet. The Inductive is an old and ex- 
 perienced traveller, who has seen many lands, observed 
 a little and read a little ; the Deductive has an excel- 
 lent turn for rational observation, and would not be too 
 proud to have a guide in visiting the classic ground of 
 ancient history. . . . The Deductive Mind must agree 
 to the following arrangements. . . . Only two gowns : 
 when the old wears out buy a new one. No band-boxes ! 
 " Write, like a good girl, and say Yes. Arrange to 
 come up with Uncle Charles. ... I ought to have 
 given you earlier warning, but I have been undecided 
 about going myself Show this to Uncle Charles. — 
 My dear Grace, your affectionate uncle, 
 
 H. Falconer." 
 
 The travellers left England towards the end of Octo- 
 ber and journeyed in a leisurely fashion southwards, 
 stopping for some time at Abbeville, Paris, Lyons, 
 Avignon, Nimes, Montpellier, and Marseilles. On this 
 tour my sister made the acquaintance of M. Boucher de 
 Perthes, Madame Mohl, and other celebrities, and she 
 records her enjoyment of the kind hospitality of French 
 friends and admiration for the courtesy and grace of 
 their manners. There is also some surprise expressed 
 at the impulsive, demonstrative affection of French 
 home life, even in the presence of strangers, and to 
 which she was unaccustomed. Of Grace herself it may 
 be remarked that, in her writings as in her life, she put 
 in practice the words of St Paul : "Whatsoever things 
 are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
 things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever 
 
MEMOIR. 13 
 
 things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report : 
 if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think 
 on these things." Dr Falconer visited the museums 
 everywhere along their route, examining and compar- 
 ing fossils (for the most part the bones and teeth of 
 Mammalia), which Grace was often occupied in figuring 
 for him. She was well fitted to appreciate her uncle's 
 scientific tastes, and in her journal she gives expression 
 to the pleasure ajQforded by visits to the valley of Yaucluse 
 and to the Botanic Garden at Montpellier, also to her 
 interest in the Roman remains at Nimes and Aries. 
 With regard to these architectural remains, she puts the 
 question, " If this their work, what then the people ? '' 
 Her impressions of the people and scenery of Southern 
 France are noted down in this journal, and from it we 
 learn that a halt was made at Avignon : — 
 
 "We reached Avignon, famous in history, before 
 1 o'clock : the turreted walls surrounding it first 
 arrested my attention, and then the old towers and 
 spires of the [city] in the distance. By a mischance 
 Uncle Hugh lost our railway tickets, but the chef of 
 the station politely allowed us to go on our way to 
 the Hotel de I'Europe, under promise that if found 
 they should be at once sent. And what shall I say 
 of Avignon ? I am only now beginning to realise 
 that the present is not a dream, and that I am veri- 
 tably present in Avignon. . . . Saturday, the 13th 
 November, must be remembered as a white day. We 
 left Avignon about eight in the morning in a carriage 
 for Yaucluse, . . . which Petrarch has for ever ren- 
 dered famous. We had excellent horses, and reached 
 our point of interest in about two hours and a half 
 Leaving the carriage, and carrying our repast in a 
 small basket, we followed the path by the Sorgues 
 
14 MEMOIR. 
 
 leading to the fountain. There was no water, so we 
 missed seeing the famous cascade ; but the picturesque 
 beauty and wildness of the scene, with all its classical 
 associations, delighted us in the highest degree. The 
 grotto itself was full of water and surmounted by per- 
 pendicular rocks to an immense height, a wild fig-tree 
 being the only foliage growing out of the rock over 
 the arch. Detached pyramids of rock stood out from 
 the rugged clefts, and openings like small caves in 
 the inaccessible heights of the escarped rocks added to 
 the wild grandeur of the scene. The ancient chateau, 
 said to be that of Petrarch, now in a dilapidated 
 state and of difficult access, is a prominent point im- 
 mediately above the little village, and below on the 
 banks of the Sorgues the garden of Petrarch is to be 
 seen, being now an island, the Sorgues on one side 
 and a mill-stream on the other, paper being made 
 from the wood of the white poplar. After our lunch 
 we read a translation of Petrarch's description of his 
 life at Vaucluse. . . . 
 
 " On arrival at Mmes we bent our steps to the 
 celebrated amphitheatre, les Arenes, situated in the 
 centre of the town. Although smaller in size, I am 
 told that it is in better preservation than the Colos- 
 seum at Eome. ... It was capable of containing 
 23,000 spectators. One of the most striking peculi- 
 arities in this great structure is the absence of cement 
 or mortar in its erection, the huge blocks of stone 
 fitting closely together. Contrasting it with the sur- 
 rounding buildings, it tells of greater minds and a 
 greater people. We next visited the 'Maison Carree,' 
 an ancient temple, also a work of the Eoman con- 
 querors. This beautiful building has seen many 
 changes, been appropriated to many difierent uses, 
 
MEMOIR. 15 
 
 and was but recently rescued from the mud and 
 debris that surrounded it, by the townspeople of 
 Nimes. It is supposed by some to have been erected 
 in the reign of Augustus, and according to others 
 ascribed to Antoninus Pius ; but it is certain that 
 first a pagan temple, it afterwards served as a Chris- 
 tian church in the eleventh century. ... Its pillars 
 are Corinthian, the volutes of exquisite pattern ; but 
 the beauty of the whole temple seems to me to arise 
 as much from the uniformity and harmony of all the 
 parts as from the perfection of each. . . . The new 
 theatre of the town, opposite it, looked so very com- 
 mon and clumsy to my ideas. Before returning to 
 the hotel we walked to the ancient Eoman baths, now 
 crowded with busy hlanchisseuses. We followed the 
 watercourse as far as the fountain (La Fontaine), near 
 which stand the ruins of an ancient temple of Diana. 
 . . . The next morning, soon after 9 o'clock, saw us 
 on our way in an open caleche to visit the famous 
 Pont du Card, situated about twelve miles from 
 Nimes. Our route lay through an interesting coun- 
 try abounding in vines and olives. . . . We turned 
 off the main road at a village called Lafoux, and, after 
 about three-quarters of a mile, by a bend of the road 
 we came in sight of the colossal Pont. ... It stood 
 before us in all its grandeur, bridging the wild grey 
 hills on either side of the Gardon, ... a monument 
 perhaps unequalled in the world — unequalled at any 
 period of its history. . . . By the evening train we 
 reached Montpellier, the air so warm and balmy that 
 we were glad to sit with open windows in the evening. 
 On Wednesday morning, the 17th, having consulted a 
 map before leaving the hotel, we were able to find our 
 way straight to the Peyrou, . . . from which is a 
 
16 MEMOIR. 
 
 superb view, and from which I had my first glimpse 
 of the Mediterranean. . . . The Porte du Peyrou 
 was fraught to me with more interest than any other 
 monument. . . . Uncle Hugh, after having gone to 
 the Botanic Garden, found Professor Gervais at last 
 in the museum. . . . He was presiding at an exam- 
 ination, but doffed his crimson robes to escort Uncle 
 Hugh through the dusty museum. . . . 
 
 ''Friday, 19th. — . . . Monsieur Marcel de Serres, 
 Professor of Geology at Montpellier, called to-day on 
 Uncle Hugh. A wonderful old man, full of vivacity 
 and energy, above eighty years of age. . . . On Mon- 
 day, the 22nd, accompanied Uncle Hugh to the chemin 
 defer, where we met by previous arrangement M. and 
 Mile. Gervais, &;c., all of us forming a party to visit 
 the celebrated caves of Lunel Viel, containing fossil 
 remains. . . . 
 
 " Tuesday. — Accompanied Uncle Hugh to dinner at 
 Dr Gordon's. . . . There was no little merriment when 
 
 Monsieur pronounced an English word for me to 
 
 hear how well he could enunciate English. Alas ! I 
 could not discover what he was attempting, much to 
 his discomfiture and to the merriment of the others, 
 
 until Dr Gordon, who is M. 's English teacher, 
 
 told me the word intended for my hearing was ' both,' 
 He had called it * bouf.' I was grieved at the poor 
 gentleman's discomfiture, but what could I do ? 
 Altogether, it was a most pleasant evening. 
 
 *' November 25. — Accompanied Uncle Hugh to the 
 Museum of the Faculty of Sciences and attempted to 
 sketch a rhinoceros jaw, but finding it would require 
 time for my unpractised hand to make a rude sketch, 
 M. Gervais kindly sent it to the hotel for me to work 
 at. In the evening the old Professor of Geology called. 
 
MEMOIR. 17 
 
 Uncle Hugh had had several previous visits from this 
 wonderful old man, now in his eighty-fourth year, as 
 full of mental and physical energy as any young man I 
 had ever met. M. Gervais, the Professor of Compara- 
 tive Anatomy and Zoology, Uncle Hugh saw daily, also 
 M. Charles Martins, the Director of the Botanic Garden, 
 also Dr Kichard Gordon, the son-in-law of the latter." 
 
 In Grace's diary there are notes of the amphitheatre 
 at Aries, of the Aliscamps, and of the Crau, " like the 
 stony bed of a sea that has receded far from the position 
 that it once occupied." 
 
 On leaving Marseilles, the travellers, accompanied by 
 Mrs M' Call's maid, an Italian, drove along the Kiviera 
 del Ponente to Genoa, where they took the steamboat 
 for Naples. An amusing custom-house episode at the 
 latter city is the subject of " Our White Deal Box, and 
 the Trouble it gave " ; and Mrs M'Call thus describes a 
 visit to Vesuvius, when a party of friends remained at 
 the Hermitage until nightfall : — 
 
 " We had climbed to the base of the cone of Vesuvius, 
 and waited for nightfall to watch the effect of the great 
 cloud of hot sulphurous vapour, which in the far dis- 
 tance gleamed with a phosphoric light, and was exhaled 
 from the river of boiling lava that, cleft in two great 
 channels, flowed down the side of the mountain. This 
 volume of heated air overhanging the fiery stream ap- 
 peared in the moonless night of unearthly brightness, 
 and changed from lurid hues of red and yellow to bluish 
 purple, the primary red maintaining a predominance. 
 As the current had crossed and necessarily intercepted 
 the winding road that led to the Hermitage, to shorten 
 the descent and gain the carriages we picked our steps 
 over hot but solid and blackened crust. . . . The atmos- 
 phere was so highly charged with sulphur as to be 
 
 B 
 
18 MEMOIR. 
 
 oppressive and almost overpowering, and once when 
 our attention was riveted on a jet of steam that rose in 
 the air with great velocity, and as suddenly fell on the 
 cracking lava with the plash and hiss of boiling water, 
 our guides by way of explanation shouted out, ^Acqua 
 calda ! acqua calda / ' . . . The view on looking back 
 was inexpressibly grand, darkness obscuring all outline of 
 the mountain : the red, hot fissures were alone visible." 
 
 With the aid of torches they descended from the 
 Hermitage, and continued to drive by torchlight as 
 far as Eesina on the road to Naples. A day at Capri 
 in stormy weather was a doubtful pleasure, but my 
 sister carried her point of a visit to the Grotta Azzura. 
 
 Of existing life at Naples nothing interested her 
 more than anecdotes of the lazzaroni narrated by an 
 English physician, who for more than forty years had 
 a large practice in that city : — 
 
 "He had formed a high opinion of the poorer class of 
 Neapolitans, and in recounting many noble traits of 
 character, described them in general terms as unman- 
 ageable if violently coerced, especially grateful, passion- 
 ate, but never sullen. In the Eevolution of 1848, when 
 the city was sacked, a band of lazzaroni made their 
 way to this physician's house, begging that he, his wife, 
 and children should retire to rest for the night, saying 
 they would guard his life and property by stretching 
 themselves across the stairs, and that if plunderers 
 forced an entrance it must be across their dead bodies. 
 True to their word, they kept watch till daybreak ; and 
 it cannot be forgotten that in thus testifying their grati- 
 tude to a benefactor (for they and their families had re- 
 ceived gratuitous attendance and kindness in sickness), 
 the opportunity was sacrificed for sharing with unscru- 
 pulous companions in the loot of defenceless houses." 
 
MEMOIR. 19 
 
 Sicily, with its caves, had great attractions for Hugh 
 Falconer, but it was not until the 1st February 1859 
 that he and his niece landed in that island — the his- 
 torian's " battlefield of nations and of creeds." Their 
 headquarters for the spring were at Palermo, where 
 Mrs M'Call worked diligently at Italian and carefully 
 sketched fossils and geological sections. A visit was 
 also made to the east coast, the party on this occasion 
 numbering several friends, who spent their time accord- 
 ing to their individual tastes, either in antiquarian 
 sight-seeing or principally in the museums and caves. 
 Grace M'Call noted down her impressions of Palermo 
 and its surroundings as follows : — 
 
 " The city stands on the northern shore of a littoral 
 plain which stretches inwards for several miles, and is 
 bounded by a chain of mountains. At some distant 
 geological period this area of alluvial soil must have 
 been entirely submerged, but from its extraordinary 
 fertility it has long been known by the name of the 
 'Concha d'Oro' or Shell of Gold. The panorama as 
 viewed from the sea embraces features of exceeding 
 beauty : the steep hilly slopes are furrowed by rushing 
 torrents fed by the melting snow, while at a lower level 
 patches of greensward watered from the same source 
 are peculiarly refreshing to the eye after the volcanic 
 aridity of a Neapolitan winter landscape. The rocky 
 eminence of Monte Pellegrino with its tortuous mule- 
 path rises to the west, towering high over the heights 
 commanding the entrance to the port, its lower ridges 
 dotted with villas and pleasure - grounds of almost 
 tropical vegetation, amongst which the palm figures 
 pre-eminent ; while the Mauresque features of the tall 
 buildings of the city are plainly discernible as they 
 edge the depressed coast-line of the Concha d'Oro." 
 
20 MEMOIR. 
 
 She gives another picturesque description of Palermo 
 with its suburban ruins as seen from Bel Monte. After 
 reference to the hydrostatic^ pillars of Arabic origin, 
 " which seem to carry one to the very threshold of 
 Eastern life," and to the flint knives and other weapons 
 found in the Cave of Maccagnone, Mrs M'Call adds a 
 list of excursions that she recommends to strangers 
 visiting Palermo. It begins thus : — 
 
 " After an inspection of the churches, an early visit 
 to the undoubted Moorish tower of La Ziza ; to the 
 ruined castle of Barbarossa, of which only the shell 
 remains, and near it King Eoger's bridge ; to the 
 legendary cave of Santa Rosalia high up in the rocks, 
 and approachable only by foot or bridle path." In- 
 cluding Monreale, Bel Monte, the metopes of Selinunto, 
 and the University Museum in her list, she continues : — 
 
 " There is also in the museum a quantity of named 
 and classified fossil bones exhumed from the lately 
 found caves. Private collections also, which from the 
 kindness of their owners are easily accessible to strang- 
 ers, contain very choice specimens of minerals, &c." 
 
 The evidence of former land communication between 
 Sicily and Africa was established by the discovery of 
 representatives of the existing African fauna in the 
 caves and superficial deposits of Sicily, including the 
 living African elephant, the hippopotamus, the hyenas 
 of Southern Africa, and the Barbary deer : — 
 
 " The question naturally arises. How did they get 
 
 1 Mrs M'Call remarks that these pillars, placed at graduated intervals, 
 were in connection with earthenware pipes conveying water to Palermo. 
 They served the purpose of siphons, reducing the pressure of the water 
 and conducting it by breaks from a high elevation to the city in the 
 plain. So efficiently had the work been done that in 1859, after the 
 lapse of centuries, Palermo still owed to this channel her main supply of 
 water. 
 
MEMOIR. 21 
 
 there ? And to this no more satisfactory explanation 
 can be given than that a line of land communication 
 bridged Sicily to Africa, the connecting ridge being 
 Adventure Bank and the fatal Skerki Shoals. Elephants 
 could only have crossed from Africa on terra Jirma or 
 on ice, and we know the latter to have been impossible, 
 as although the refrigeration of the Glacial Period par- 
 tially affected the waters of the Mediterranean, its action 
 so far south could never have sufficed to encircle Sicily 
 by an icy sea. Further, it is well ascertained that 
 these animals do not swim across a sea channel of any 
 great width, as exemplified in the case of the islands in 
 the Indian Archipelago of the present day. In any 
 case, we cannot surely endorse the hypothesis of the 
 learned historian Ferrara, who gravely suggested that 
 the live hippopotamus might have been imported from 
 Africa for the amusement of the Sicilian ladies." 
 
 The following entries are from Mrs M'Call's journal : — 
 
 ''February 2 [1859]. — Charmed with the mild, 
 soft air of Palermo. Had a visit from the Consul, Mr 
 Goodwin. . . . Sent with cards our letters of intro- 
 duction. 
 
 " 3rcZ. — The day cloudy, but not so much so as to 
 prevent visitors from coming. . . . Mr Morrison also 
 called in the afternoon, giving Uncle Hugh much in- 
 teresting information about a cave near Carini, where a 
 quantity of fossils had been excavated some years ago 
 under his direction, and sent to the British Museum. 
 ... In the evening took tea at the Consulate. . . . 
 
 " Uh. — Neither Mrs Wood nor I ventured out, but 
 had a busy day indoors, drawing, &c. Uncle Hugh off 
 to the museum with his friend. Count Spada Lavini 
 from Pisa, whose acquaintance he had recently made. 
 
 '* 7 til. — Intended to go to Monreale, but when Uncle 
 
22 MEMOIR. 
 
 Hugh returned from San Giro we found there was not 
 time, so drove to Bel Monte instead. Uncle Hugh had 
 spent the morning with his friend at the Grotto of San 
 Giro, and came home laden with baskets of fossils, and 
 his pockets filled with teeth, &c. . . . Gaptain and Mrs 
 [Andover] Wood drove with us to the Villa Bel Monte, 
 beautifully situated, just below the Monte Pellegrino. 
 Instead of accompanying Uncle Hugh with Gaptain and 
 Mrs Wood to the Gonsulate to tea in the evening, I 
 spent the evening with Miss Robinson and her brother, 
 young Mr Rose giving a very sad account of the Sicilian 
 prisons of Trapani, some of them entirely of lead, far 
 below the level of the soil. . . . 
 
 " 10th. — . . . Drawing, tracing, and colouring a geo- 
 logical section. Uncle Hugh off as usual to the museum ; 
 and a geological chat between him and Gount Spada in 
 the evening. 
 
 " 11th. — Accompanied Gaptain and Mrs Wood and 
 Mr Grant on a drive at 2 p.m. to the Giro di Grazia. 
 . . . The groves of oranges, almond-trees in blossom, 
 fields of artichokes, banks covered with daisies and 
 marigolds, wide olive-grounds, . . . hedges of prickly 
 pear, the fresh green corn well advanced — all, with the 
 range of mountains capped with snow in the distance, 
 formed a richly varied picture. 
 
 ''12th. — . . . Had an invitation to accompany Gap- 
 tain and Mrs Wood to a breakfast to-morrow on board 
 the Russian man-of-war, given by the Grand Duke, but 
 of course declined, being for Sunday. Our invitation 
 through Gaptain Rumine, a Russian engineer officer 
 accompanying the Grand Duke on his cruise in order to 
 take photographs of the different towns of Italy. . . . 
 
 " ISth. — Heard from that about 200 strangers 
 
 were present at the Duke's breakfast, but only other 
 
MEMOIR. 23 
 
 three individuals among these were English, . . . being 
 Sunday. 
 
 " lUh. — Uncle Hugh, although still unwell, started 
 with Baron Anca di Mangalaviti and other two gentle- 
 men at 9 A.M. for the caves of Belliemi, situated inland, 
 and about seven miles distant from Palermo. ... In 
 the evening with Captain and Mrs Wood to a party at 
 Mr Kose's. ... A large number of Kussian naval 
 officers and aides-de-camp were present, a few Sicilians, 
 almost all the English residents, Kussian consul, &c. 
 ... all of us admiring the handsome rooms which 
 were thrown open en suite — tea-room, ball-room, and 
 drawing-room. 
 
 " 17th. — ... In the evening took tea with Captain 
 and Mrs Wood, Mr Goodwin and Captain Kumine also 
 spending the evening. . . . 
 
 " March 4. — Uncle Hugh started at 6 a.m. with the 
 Baron Anca di Mangalaviti and Professor Porcari for 
 the caves of Carini, distant about fifteen miles from 
 Palermo, with the intention of staying one or two 
 nights and of employing workmen in the fossil caves 
 there. ^ I had my Italian lesson in the morning. ... In 
 the evening accompanied Dr, Mrs, and Miss Henry to 
 a reception given by Mr Goodwin in honour of the 
 officers of the British man-of-war Scourge, which is 
 commanded by Prince Victor Hohenlohe, a nephew of 
 our Queen. All the English residents were present, 
 and the guests punctual to the hour. . . . The Prince 
 was taken round the room and each lady separately 
 introduced, then the file of officers went through the 
 same ordeal. ... A proposal for dancing had been 
 mooted to our kind host, which he very wisely vetoed 
 
 1 Dr Falconer's observations on Sicilian caves were published in 1859 : 
 * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vol. xvi. p. 1. 
 
24 MEMOIR. 
 
 at once, as the dancing could only have been in the 
 room used every Sunday as a church. 
 
 " 7 til. — Italian in the morning. ... A drive to San 
 Giro with Uncle Hugh in the afternoon, with the three 
 s. We did not find many [fossil] teeth, only wait- 
 ing a short time at the cave. In the evening Uncle 
 Hugh and I went to Mr Kose's evening party, Miss 
 Henry accompanying us. It proved a very gay one 
 indeed, all the Palermitan English residents, many 
 Sicilians, Eussian officers, and Prince Victor with the 
 officers of the Scourge. There was dancing, which I as 
 a spectator thought very good, the rooms well lighted 
 and ornamented with flowers. 
 
 " 10th. — A dreadful storm and no Naples boat. 
 Uncle Hugh had arranged to go with Professor Por- 
 cari to Carini, and was compelled for the day to give 
 up the project. I went in the afternoon to see Mrs 
 Gardiner's collection of sulphurs and minerals. ... In 
 the morning I tried to draw a fossil jaw which she had 
 kindly lent to Uncle Hugh. 
 
 " I'^tli. — . . . The rain pouring in torrents as we 
 returned home, forming a running stream in the Toledo, 
 which was crossed by foot-passengers on small movable 
 wooden bridges on iron wheels. The large iron bridge 
 on wheels, where the Via Macqueda cuts across the 
 Toledo, in great use to-day." 
 
 Bagheria and the Bocca di Falco were favourite 
 drives, the former specially rich in sea and highland 
 views : — 
 
 ''March 22. — The fresh green grass near Bocca di 
 Falco beautiful — the fig-trees putting forth their leaves, 
 the cherries in blossom, the scent of the wild-flowers 
 very sweet, and the groves still laden with citrons and 
 oranges." And again : " On our way back from Bag- 
 
MEMOIR. 25 
 
 heria we noticed fields of sumach, which, when ground, 
 furnishes a yellow dye, passing also many carts laden 
 with solid bricks of sulphur, which is largely exported 
 from Catania. Our attention was, however, chiefly 
 occupied in noting the light carts, which might pass 
 for magnified Chinese tea-boxes painted in an oriental 
 pattern of brilliant tints : they were evidently the 
 common vehicle of the country, and with their drivers 
 clad in woolly sheepskins were certainly unique. One 
 or two Palermitan seamen we had previously remarked 
 in this grotesque raiment, the jacket and trousers made 
 of uncombed, undipped wool of wonderful length : it 
 gave to the wearer a fearfully shaggy look, recalling the 
 costume in children's picture-books of Kobinson Crusoe 
 and his man Friday. Instead of returning straight to 
 the hotel, we drove to the ruined castle of Barbarossa, 
 in the neighbourhood of the city. ... It is near King 
 Koger's bridge, very curious in the composition of its 
 large and small arches. 
 
 " 2Uh, — Wet, but accompanied Mrs Henry to see 
 Mrs Gardiner's collection. Had some friends to tea in 
 the evening." 
 
 At the Botanic Garden Mrs M* Call's attention was 
 attracted by the splendid Bougainvillea spectabilis, 
 then apparently uncommon in Europe, and she also 
 remarked the decorative efi'ect of Myrsiphyllum aspara- 
 goides. Some years later (23rd March 1872) she wrote 
 to the * Garden ' in favour of its universal cultivation in 
 England : — 
 
 " The Creeping Myrtle {Myrsiphyllum asparagoides). 
 
 ** In the interesting notice of this plant in No. 15, 
 p. 324, the writer expresses an opinion that its appli- 
 cation for ornamental purposes must be peculiar to 
 
26 MEMOIR. 
 
 America, as he did not find it in European plant 
 catalogues, nor mentioned in any foreign works on 
 floriculture. I am glad to learn, from the editorial 
 note appended to the description of this interesting 
 plant, that it is occasionally to be met with in botanical 
 or rare collections in this country ; but I wish to remark 
 that it is well known in Sicily, and that it is cultivated 
 and largely used for ornamental purposes in Palermo. 
 The Palermitan belles find from experience that its 
 delicate graceful sprays outlive all other green foliage 
 in the heated air of a ball-room, and they arrange it 
 with great taste for personal decoration, adding some 
 of their splendid camellias, or other brilliant flowers, 
 which grow in profusion in what is literally a land of 
 flowers. I made an experiment some years ago at 
 Palermo with a branch of the Myrsiphyllum aspara- 
 goides, which was brought to me as a specimen of the 
 plant so much used by ladies there for the decoration 
 of the hair, on account of its long retention of green- 
 ness and freshness. It was laid on a table in a room 
 without water, in order to ascertain how many hours it 
 was possible to keep it fresh. Unfortunately, no record 
 was kept of the actual length of time, although it im- 
 pressed all of us. ... I have long wondered why our 
 English ladies do not adopt this very beautiful and 
 delicate plant as an addition to their ball-room toilet. 
 I can only surmise that its merits have been compara- 
 tively unknown in England, and I trust that your 
 interesting notice, coming as it does all the way from 
 across the Atlantic, will eventually lead to its universal 
 cultivation in greenhouses in this country. — G." 
 
 Apparently no trustworthy guide-book for Sicily ex- 
 isted at this date, but their Palermo friends readily 
 
MEMOIR. 27 
 
 gave Dr Falconer all local information, particularly 
 Mr Goodwin, the British consul, whose long experience 
 made him thoroughly conversant with everything re- 
 lating to the island. Mrs M'Call writes of the "un- 
 broken unanimity and affectionate footing" on which 
 the eight or ten English and American resident families 
 stood to each other. They were chiefly the heads of 
 well-known Mediterranean mercantile firms engaged in 
 the export of Sicilian produce, and were remarkable 
 for " their warm welcome and kind hospitality to 
 strangers." She mentions the amusement of some 
 Italian friends, who had accompanied Dr Falconer and 
 herself to the Cave of San Giro, when their carriage 
 was surrounded by a crowd of forty-two women and 
 children. These Sicilians would shout for joy when 
 they saw the geologist arrive, anticipating a harvest 
 of small coins for the fossils that they had collected. 
 On a drive to the Gathedral of Monreale the tourists 
 were ** waylaid by crowds of urchins, who, espying the 
 carriage from Monreale, came racing down a short path 
 to meet us. They took up their position in detach- 
 ments at corners of the zigzag road, where they knew 
 the horses must rest, varying their monotonous cry of 
 'Piccola moneta' [A small coin], or 'Datemi qualche 
 cosa ' [Give me something], with the more daring 
 assertion of *Non ho mangiato per sette giorni' [I 
 have eaten nothing for seven days]; whilst one con- 
 science, more hardened than those of his companions, 
 strengthened the appeal for money by substituting 
 ' fifteen ' for ' seven,' declaring with smiling face that 
 his fast had lasted a fortnight." 
 
 After-experience led Mrs M'Call to the conclusion 
 that the villagers of the northern shore were more 
 prosperous and civilised in their homes and customs 
 
28 MEMOIR. 
 
 than the poorer village communities of the Catanian 
 and Syracusan coasts. It was '*a pleasant surprise in 
 our natural-history expeditions to meet with willing 
 help. . . . The women in particular appeared to be 
 patterns of industry, and were generally to be seen 
 sitting in groups before the cottage doors, busy 
 doubtless with the unruly member, but busy also 
 with their needle or the distaff; their luxuriant 
 hair generally coiled in heavy plaits, and their 
 clothing, if poor, always clean and white. . . . No 
 pen has ever painted the tragedies of the piomhi 
 of Trapani, for what survivor ever escaped to tell the 
 tale ! Death was the only angel of release. Happily 
 these are memories of the past, and no one has now 
 to dread the unseen and whispered horrors of the 
 piombV 
 
 In the end of March the travellers left by steamer 
 for Messina, Catania, and Syracuse : — 
 
 ''March 25. — . . . Packing and receiving good-bye 
 visitors. . . . Eeached Messina harbour on Saturday 
 about noon, landing at 1 p.m., our party consisting of 
 Dr and Mrs Henry, Dr Daubeny,^ and Miss Croome. 
 We found the vessel tolerably good, quick, but our 
 ladies' cabin close." 
 
 Visits were paid to the Syracusan quarries, where 
 7000 Athenian captives were imprisoned, "starved to 
 death, those few only saved who could repeat the 
 verses of Euripides to their masters " ; to the Orrechio 
 di Dionisio, the Greek theatre, ancient fortifications, 
 and tombs ; and to the amphitheatre and museum. 
 Mrs M'Call partook of Hybla honey, and had a lesson 
 in paper-making from a Sicilian on her return, laden 
 
 1 Sometime Professor of Chemistry and afterwards Professor of Botany 
 at Oxford. Born 1795 ; died 1867. 
 
MEMOIR. 29 
 
 with tall stems of papyrus, from a boating excursion 
 up the Anapus. 
 
 ''March 30. — Breakfasted at 5.30 a.m., and started 
 in two carriages for Catania; stopped to look at the 
 caves near the Scala Greca, passed through several 
 villages and close to the sea." 
 
 After a halt at Lentini the tourists arrived the same 
 evening in Catania. It was impossible at that season 
 to ascend Mount Etna, so they were content with an 
 expedition to Nicolosi and Monti Eossi : — 
 
 "The view of the plain of Catania very fine, and 
 the current of lava of [1669 ?] as it entered the sea 
 below Catania distinctly visible. Found the path over 
 loose scorise and lava rather difficult. . . . We had a 
 good view of the many fumaroles of Etna, all their 
 small craters extinct. Etna itself looked grand and 
 peaceful, but on the whole I was disappointed with it, 
 the existing volcanic action of Vesuvius being to me 
 more awful and striking. Strange that the one 
 mountain alternates with the other in its eruption." 
 
 From Catania they drove by Aci Castello past the 
 Cyclopean rocks to Giardini near Taormina, and thence 
 next day to Messina. 
 
 Mr Charles Falconer, an uncle of Mrs M'Call, with 
 Margaret Milne, a younger sister, joined the geologist 
 and his niece at Naples : all proceeded to Kome for 
 Easter, continuing the journey by Florence and Leg- 
 horn to Genoa. 
 
 ''Rome, Monday, April 18. — Climbed the Monte 
 Pincio to see the Eternal City, but the seven hills not 
 easily distinguishable. 
 
 "20th. — Heard the * Miserere' sung in one of the 
 chapels of St Peter's. The impression made by St 
 Peter's disappointing, gorgeous and magnificent in 
 
30 MEMOIR. 
 
 detail, but the excessive ornament doing entirely away 
 with the vastness I had expected would impress me 
 so much. To me no religious awe nor solemnity in 
 the great temple of modern Eome. 
 
 " Thursday, 2lst. — Saw the Benediction of the Table 
 (Tavola) by the Pope after he had washed the feet of 
 twelve poor brethren from different countries. Had a 
 good view of Queen Christina of Spain with her hus- 
 band, of our young Prince of Wales, and the diplomatic 
 corps of different countries. In the evening the ex- 
 position of the relics from a balcony, which could not 
 have edified the beholders much, from the distance at 
 which they were held. The Pauline Chapel beautifully 
 illuminated. 
 
 ^'Friday, 22nd. — To the English Church service in 
 the morning, a drive later in the day to see the city, 
 and to hear the splendid ' Stabat Mater ' sung in the 
 Church of St Marcello in the evening. 
 
 ''Saturday, 23rd. — To the Church of St Ignatius, 
 and in the evening to the Trinita dei Pellegrini to see 
 the feet of poor pilgrim women washed by the noble 
 Eoman ladies, a ceremony which takes place every 
 evening during Holy Week and until Tuesday evening 
 of next week. Many of the feet of the pilgrims were 
 very black and dirty, the ladies were allowed no soap, 
 and it was something curious to see the jewelled fingers 
 washing a leg unhealthy and sore, the ladies kneeling 
 and kissing the foot when washed. After the lavanda 
 the pilgrims all sat down at table and were waited 
 upon by the ladies, soup, bread, meat, vegetables, and 
 wine plentifully provided, while a Latin hymn was read 
 by some Church dignitary. It seemed to me one of the 
 most amiable of the Roman ceremonies. A hospital is 
 attached to the church, and the ladies belonging to this 
 
MEMOIR. 31 
 
 lay sisterhood who attend upon the sick have their 
 stated days appointed. 
 
 ''2Uh. — To St Peter's to see the Benediction on 
 Easter Sunday. The illumination was very fine in the 
 evening, the Cross bursting at once into a star of light. 
 It looked very gorgeous from Monte Pincio. 
 
 "ilfoy 13.— Florence. ... 
 
 " 23rc?.— The Pitti Palace, the Ufiizi, the Duomo, the 
 churches, the Cascine Gardens, the Boboli, the expedi- 
 tion to Fiesole, the beauty of the situation, — all made 
 me enjoy Florence more than any other city of Italy." 
 
 The travellers remained in Florence until the 30th 
 May, and there they became acquainted with the cele- 
 brated mathematician, Mrs Somerville, then resident in 
 that city. This acquaintance was renewed at Naples in 
 1870, and Grace M'Call's recollections of her are to be 
 found in the sketch entitled "An Evening with Mrs 
 Somerville." From Genoa the party, with the excep- 
 tion of Dr Falconer, took the Mont Cenis route to 
 Geneva and Paris, where some time was enjoyably 
 spent : — 
 
 "On landing at Genoa from the Messageries Com 
 pany's steamboat, it was discovered that the captain 
 of the vessel had forgotten to leave our four passports, 
 and had sailed away with them to Marseilles. The two 
 gentlemen of our party insisted on temporary passports 
 being granted : next day, after some trouble, these were 
 at length given to us, and we were able to travel by 
 the last train to Turin. The authorities had indeed 
 good reason to be vigilant — the breath of battle was 
 in the air ; and as our train halted for a few minutes 
 at Alessandria, there was time for us to get sight 
 of the fortified encampments round the station, and 
 of the fascines and earthworks bristling with cannon. 
 
32 MEMOIR. 
 
 "At one point we were within twenty-five miles of the 
 contending armies of Austria and struggling Italy, so 
 that there was a suspicion of risk about the journey that 
 in our utter ignorance of warfare gave it a zest to some 
 of us — though not to all. How horror-struck we should 
 all have been had the fact been made known to us that 
 the awful battle of Magenta was fought that day, and 
 that we were almost within earshot, the Austrians being 
 defeated with a loss of 10,000 killed, besides, it was 
 said, 7000 prisoners. The Piedmontese and French 
 troops, headed by Victor Emmanuel and Louis Napo- 
 leon, lost 4000 men killed and wounded. One shudders 
 in reading the bare record. Could we wonder that the 
 railway officials looked sick at heart and went sadly 
 about their work that day? 
 
 " Turin is a noble city, built of fair white stone, and 
 mainly of modern date, the lofty colonnades of the 
 wide streets furnishing shelter from the fierce heat of 
 summer and from the icy winds of winter. Crossing 
 the bridge over the Po, we saw from the opposite 
 side the great alpine river sweeping past the city in 
 tremendous volume. . . . But it was views of the range 
 of the Alps at the end of those colonnaded streets 
 which made marvellous pictures. With a blaze of sun- 
 shine, the blue depths of a cloudless sky were pierced 
 by icy peaks and heights mantled in eternal snow. 
 Often our thoughts have dwelt upon those vistas from 
 the streets of Turin, and of those peaks and heights 
 far above the snow-line. . . . The streets were full of 
 eager and hurrying crowds, there was the throb of 
 excitement and trembling anxiety, for what family of 
 Piedmont had not a son or brother fighting in the 
 field 1 But those snow-crowned mountains looming in 
 the near distance were in telling contrast to the fevered 
 
MEMOIR. 33 
 
 din of the streets, and remained as they remain until 
 this day, calm, immovable, and majestic. The sight 
 was suggestive ! " 
 
 She adds : — 
 
 " On our first visit we were introduced to Baron 
 Poerio, the man of letters and of pure and blameless 
 life, who, convicted at Naples on false political charges, 
 had languished in irons in the awful dungeon of the 
 Bagno di Nisida, chained night and day to a condemned 
 criminal. Poerio had been sentenced to twenty-four 
 years of irons. . . . Instead of the anxiety visible on 
 so many faces, we found Poerio beaming with happi- 
 ness, well content at the turn of events in favour 
 of Italy. The news just received from the field of 
 Magenta had sent a sigh of relief from end to end of 
 the town. The evacuation of Milan by the Austrians 
 was bound to follow, as in fact it did four days after 
 Magenta, and the cities of Central Italy were one by 
 one declaring themselves a reunited kingdom. . . . 
 Poerio may be described as more like a quiet English- 
 man than a southern Italian. He was below the middle 
 height, with a fine head and broad forehead, and a 
 very open expression of countenance. Except for the 
 grey hair and other marks of premature old age, more 
 particularly the general bleached appearance — like that 
 of a plant blanched by long seclusion from the light 
 — there were no signs of sufi'ering on the refined 
 features, nor any evidence of his shattered health. 
 Considering what he had passed through, his appear- 
 ance was a pleasant surprise, especially when we recol- 
 lect that he had only made his escape a few months 
 before. It was early in the year (1859), his sentence 
 after urgent protest having been commuted to exile 
 in North America, that he set sail with sixty -six 
 
 C 
 
34 MEMOIR. 
 
 companions. The vessel was seized by them on the 
 voyage, and sailing to Cork, they landed Poerio, pro- 
 ceeding to London on the 18th March. Conscious of 
 our unspoken sympathy, he gave us a pleasant wel- 
 come : his face was radiant with satisfaction, and no 
 one who did not know his history could have guessed 
 at the terrible experiences of his life. It was to pre- 
 vent a recurrence of such experiences among her sons 
 that much of the life-blood of Italy was shed. As we 
 glanced at him, we could not but wonder and ask 
 ourselves whether this white-haired Italian gentleman 
 with the placid manner and with that wonderful smile 
 lighting up the large eyes could be the prisoner. . . . 
 We could not allude to Nisida nor to the still more 
 horrible dungeon of Ischia, where he had been subse- 
 sequently immured, yet words were not needed to 
 assure him of our sympathy. After a short interview, 
 we left Poerio with a baffled sense of wishing to say 
 so much, and of having been able to say so little. 
 Yet was it not an event in one's life to have spoken 
 to Poerio, and to have been even in momentary touch 
 with that heroic soul ! 
 
 "Early next morning we took train to Susa. We 
 had to cross Mont Cenis in a carriage with four horses, 
 in company with four friends who had a similar con- 
 veyance and who wished to keep by us. In going over 
 the pass we met several companies of French infantry, 
 the soldiers singing merrily as they marched down into 
 Lombardy, to fight by the side of the Italian troops. 
 Fourteen days later the great battle of Solferino was 
 [won]." 
 
 After describing the views as " magnificent," she 
 goes on : — 
 
 " At the highest point the snow lay in wreaths in 
 
MEMOIR. 35 
 
 the ravines and in clouds on the summits, inexpressibly 
 grand and beautiful. Wild torrents formed by the 
 melting snow dashed down the steeps." 
 
 On the 29th June 1859 the party of travellers 
 returned to London, Mrs M'Call having been absent 
 since October. The winter of 1859-1860 found her 
 at " Balnageith," a villa which was rented by Dr 
 Falconer at Torquay; but in 1860-1861 the two 
 sisters were again abroad with their uncle. They 
 halted at Amiens and Paris, and took the steamer 
 from Lyons to Valence. Grace describes the scenery 
 of the Ehone along this route, and also as seen from 
 the hill above the cathedral at Avignon : — 
 
 " October 25. — Had such a glorious view, the Ehone 
 winding through gardens of olives, mulberries, and 
 madder. Its junction with the Durance; the extent 
 of rich country covered with vineyards and olives and 
 dotted by chateaux and villages, with the grand range 
 of the Basses Alpes bounding the horizon ; the cloud- 
 less clearness of air and sky and glow of sunshine, 
 all combined, must be seen to be fully appreciated." 
 
 They remained at Nice from the 3rd November to 
 the 1st April, when they started on a tour in Northern 
 Italy. On the 13th of April Mrs M^Call wrote from 
 Genoa to one of her sisters, then at school in 
 London : — 
 
 " Uncle Hugh has taken an immense fancy to Nervi, 
 and has been to the English consul here to ascertain 
 the prices of land, rents of villas, &c. There is no hotel 
 at Nervi, which is a great want. Genoa is like a bee- 
 hive, full of noise, bustle, and preparations in the event 
 of war with Austria. Bands of newly recruited troops 
 everywhere, and heaps of cannon-balls piled along the 
 beach. 
 
36 MEMOIR. 
 
 " Genoa is more like London than any other place I 
 have seen, from its being so crowded. The dress of 
 the women is very graceful and picturesque. They 
 wear a scarf of the most airy white muslin over their 
 heads, fastened in their beautifully plaited hair by 
 means of two large pins. This muslin scarf is always 
 worn out of doors, and falls in front, enveloping the 
 shoulders. We drove to the English church on Sun- 
 day forenoon. . . . The cabman had great difficulty 
 in guiding his carriage through the densely crowded 
 streets — all in their best attire. On Sunday evening 
 we went to a most interesting service in the Keformed 
 Italian church : more than 150 were present, mostly 
 Genoese men in their prime — which was very delight- 
 ful to see. They have a service at sunset every week- 
 day, when Mr De Sanctis, a reformed priest, expounds 
 a chapter, reading a verse of it in turn with those 
 present. On Sunday evening they also read a verse 
 of a chapter in turn : I read mine with a trembling 
 pronunciation. It was quite thrilling to me to listen 
 to a beautiful sermon in the Italian language. And 
 the singing of the hymns sounded so sonorous and 
 sweet. I am so interested I could write pages on the 
 subject. . . . Our best love to your dear little self, 
 and kind regards to Miss Hare." 
 
 Mrs M'Call records an interview with General Gari- 
 baldi at Turin, and the sisters were present in the 
 Italian Chamber on the occasion (18 th April) of 
 Garibaldi's first appearance as a deputy. It was on 
 that day also that he attacked Count Cavour's policy 
 with regard to Nice, and his unfulfilled promise to 
 enrol the Garibaldian troops in the regular army : — 
 
 "Face and figure were more massive than photo- 
 graphs had led us to expect. ... He was of middle 
 
MEMOIR. 37 
 
 height, the great breadth of shoulder and deep wide 
 chest denoting unusual strength; and, as one of his 
 biographers remarks in giving a picture of Garibaldi 
 as he first appeared on the battlefields of Europe, his 
 frame was cast in an iron mould combining agility 
 with strength. His eyes lighted up when we men- 
 tioned Sicily, and he wished to know what part of 
 the island we had visited. We told him of our trip 
 to Palermo : yes, we had been to Messina, and spoke 
 of our short stay in Catania and in Syracuse. . . . 
 I tried at first to act as spokeswoman ; then the 
 head of our party talked with the General in English, 
 in which he expressed himself fluently and with eager 
 interest. ... A kindly word was said to each of us 
 with a hearty shake of the hand, and we said 'Addio' 
 to the man . . . whose name and fame belong for all 
 time to history." 
 
 In her diary for the 17th April Grace adds : — 
 "We then went and called on the Baroness Solaroli. 
 . . . We also saw her two engaging daughters, 
 Antoinette Countess Savoiroux and Pauline Countess 
 Kegis. After a long chat with them we proceeded to 
 the Camera, where sending, according to his desire, to 
 Baron Solaroli, we were conducted up to the ladies' 
 tribune and had the greatest celebrities pointed out 
 by him — Cavour, &c. We could not understand the 
 speeches, partly owing to the height. . . . Next day 
 we hurried to the House long before the hour for 
 debate. We found it already densely packed — crowded 
 to the door, and the ladies' gallery fortunately un- 
 attainable. . . . We however managed to find stand- 
 ing room half - way up the open stair leading to it, 
 whence we were able to have a glimpse of the pro- 
 ceedings. Cavour sat in his place in front of the 
 
38 MEMOIR. 
 
 ministerial benches facing the entrance. He looked 
 grave, and paler than on the previous day, yet he 
 seemed in apparent health, and there were no symptoms 
 of the mortal malady that in a few more weeks was to 
 remove him from his place, — 
 
 * No touch of change, 
 'No hint of death in all his frame.' 
 
 "Suddenly there was a noise and scramble at the 
 entrance, and Garibaldi, in the traditional red shirt 
 and with his sword by his side, was seen in the door- 
 way, vainly struggling to force a passage through the 
 living mass. In an instant the deputies to a man had 
 risen to their feet, and a scene followed of the wildest 
 enthusiasm. The vivas and cries of welcome were 
 deafening — nay, thrilling; they were caught up again 
 and again, each cry of welcome louder than the last. 
 Many eyes were moist, and the scene to us was alto- 
 gether unparalleled. The one member who preserved 
 his dignity and calmness of demeanour was Cavour, 
 who seemed almost impassive. . . . He could only 
 listen to the tremendous tumult of applause and wait 
 in patience until the assembly was reduced to silence 
 from sheer exhaustion. 
 
 **As we looked from the one chief over the sea of 
 heads to the other, we felt the two men were strangely 
 in contrast. The dauntless soldier with the candid, 
 open countenance, its lion-like character enhanced by 
 the shaggy moustache and tawny beard, his hand on 
 the hilt of his sword as if bent on a set purpose ; and 
 the political chief, self-contained, impassive, powerful, 
 standing like a statue, and waiting with those com- 
 pressed lips for the bitter words which he knew were 
 to be hurled at him. Yet how was Garibaldi to reach 
 
MEMOIR. 39 
 
 his seat ? He was not carried in on men's shoulders — 
 there was not space for the attempt — yet in the struggle 
 to force his way up the crowded passage it was evident 
 that he was more than once carried off his feet, and 
 pushed forward to his place among a group of his 
 followers. The heat was stifling ; in the crush our 
 position had become insupportable, and it was with 
 no little difiiculty we forced our way out, and thus 
 missed being present at what is now regarded as a 
 memorable episode in the political history of Italy. 
 
 " April 17. — From Turin to Milan in less than four 
 hours, passing through the fertile plain of Lombardy 
 with its rice-fields. ... In the afternoon we went and 
 had a glance at the splendid Duomo with its ' forests of 
 pillars.' Its interior is to me more solemn and striking 
 than that of St Peter's, Rome. 
 
 ''Milan, April 20-29. — . . . For three days I 
 acted as Uncle Hugh's secretary at the museum, writing 
 the description of the rhinoceros skull found by Cortesi. 
 We made the acquaintance of the scientific and charm- 
 ing Abate Stoppani.^ . . . Through a kind letter of 
 introduction from Mr Susanni to his cousin Count 
 Marogna, we [often] saw the count and countess, and 
 were very much pleased with the latter, who takes an 
 interest in the Milanese hospitals. . . . We visited with 
 them one day the monster hospital of Milan, which 
 requires the services of 150 medical men daily when 
 full! 
 
 "The Palazzo Brera, with its gallery of paintings, 
 was interesting, but did not excite so much admiration 
 as the single fresco of the Cenacolo, painted by Leonardo 
 da Vinci, in the refectory of the church of Santa Maria 
 
 ^ Antonio Stoppani was Professor of Geology in the Koyal Technical 
 Institute of Milan. He died 1891, aged sixty-five. 
 
40 MEMOIR. 
 
 delle Grazie. Mr Keynolds, the vice-consul, was very 
 kind in giving us, unasked for, letters of introduction 
 for Venice." 
 
 A letter, dated " Milan, 7tli May," is addressed to one 
 of Grace's sisters : — 
 
 " In good truth I am not sorry to have an excuse for 
 writing to our little woman. On the 29th ultimo we 
 made an expedition of five days to the Italian lakes 
 — Como, Lugano, and Maggiore, — an expedition we 
 enjoyed more than I can express, having beautiful 
 weather, without a drop of rain, all the time, and all of 
 us in good health and spirits. The scenery is very 
 lovely, so grand and yet so varied. Lugano is my 
 favourite : though considerably smaller than the other 
 two, it is wilder and more striking, especially from one 
 particular point at the town of Lugano. . . . We wished 
 to land at Bellagio, but it was very dark at 8 p.m., and 
 the captain said we would have half an hour out in a 
 small boat. We followed his counsel and landed at 
 Cadenabbia, where we found an excellent hotel, but the 
 people not prepared for strangers, as they had no keys 
 in the doors and the house was full of painters. Next 
 morning I could hardly take time to dress, so tempting 
 was the view from the window, the lake with its banks 
 bordered with vines, the purple lights hanging on these 
 mountain banks." 
 
 The following week the sisters and Dr Falconer left 
 Bologna on a few days' tour : — 
 
 " A trip to the Adriatic coast had long been planned, 
 and now the opportunity ofiered, as an Italian naturalist 
 who knew the district was willing to be our guide to the 
 exarchate cities of Eavenna and Kimini. Duly taking 
 into account all the risks to be run, as brigandage was 
 then rife in the fair province of the Eomagna, we 
 
MEMOIR. 41 
 
 arranged to limit our excursion to a few days only. 
 During the old papal days the bandit trade had proved 
 a prosperous one, the police and other officials, though 
 not openly banded with highwaymen, had rightly or 
 wrongly been suspected of connivance with them, as the 
 brigands and their booty invariably got off with im- 
 punity. Victor EmmanueFs new Government had 
 taken active steps to keep and clear the road, but 
 it was not to be expected that a few months of vigorous 
 reform would stamp out an evil that had existed and 
 been the scourge of the country for centuries. 
 
 "Nothing daunted by vague rumours from the 
 * brigand country,' nor by the fact that the daily 
 diligence on the Ancona road required an escort 
 of carabineers, conveyed in a separate carriage, we 
 travellers hired a vettura and horses belonging to 
 Giovanni Schiavone, a good Paduan vetturino, who 
 throughout the trip proved a trusty guide, completely 
 identifying himself with the interests of his employers. 
 The excursion was not made from mere love of adven- 
 ture, or for the sole gratification of seeing a classic 
 province of classic Italy comparatively unvisited : the 
 main object was the acquisition of geological informa- 
 tion for two of the party, our Italian friend being well 
 known in the world of science. 
 
 "On the 15th of May we made an early start from 
 Bologna minus carabineers, leaving baggage and all 
 valuables in charge of the worthy host and hostess of 
 the Albergo Svizzero, carrying just enough money to 
 defray the expenses of five or six days. For the 
 common good, a watch was taken with its key slung on 
 cord. ... By 9 A.M. we had left Bologna far behind, 
 and were rolling over the old Emilian Way through the 
 great alluvial valley of the Po, the outlying spurs of the 
 
42 MEMOIR. 
 
 Apennines bounding it on our right, but nothing visible 
 on the left from our low level save an endless vista of 
 luxuriant fields. The long straight line of road was 
 almost tiresome in its sameness, every inch of ground 
 being highly cultivated : the plain seemed to be mapped 
 out in small sections, each field lined ofi" by rows of 
 mulberry-trees interlaced by trailing vines. . . . Imola 
 was only our mid -day halt, the two geologists agreeing 
 to postpone their work in its neighbourhood until our 
 return. A description of Imola would apply to a 
 hundred Italian towns — dilapidated buildings of some 
 pretension betokening better days ; groups of chubby 
 children playing on the shady side of a hot street ; and 
 the dolce far niente of the shops apparently only dis- 
 turbed by an occasional sale of polenta, or macaroni, or 
 other farinaceous store. The afternoon journey was 
 resumed through a like country of extraordinary 
 fertility, abounding in corn and wine and silk; the 
 mulberry in lieu of the olive, fields of corn or artichoke 
 alternating with flax in fullest bloom, or glowing masses 
 of the crimson clover. 
 
 " In passing through the stirring town of Faenza we 
 were fain to stop and have a look at its curious pot- 
 tery, but our limited time necessitated Forli, a stage in 
 advance, as our night's quarters, where we arrived 
 begrimed with dust. Only two dirty rooms, exorbit- 
 antly dear, were to be had in the hotel, so we took 
 refuge for the night in a second-rate inn, * II Vapore,' 
 which comes back to one's memory in a cloud of dismal 
 associations. Would that some of us had chosen our 
 vehicle as a shelter, instead of seeking the couch pre- 
 pared by the rough but kindly inmates of the ' Vapore ' ! 
 At early dawn we were again en route, catching a 
 glimpse of the citadel as we emerged from the city 
 
MEMOIR. 43 
 
 walls. Its brave defence by Catherine Sforza is a 
 matter of history, and matches in heroism the northern 
 legend of Black Agnes of Dunbar. 
 
 " We certainly saw the country at the most favour- 
 able season; but in the vicinity of Forlimpopoli the 
 surpassing richness of the plain seemed to attain a 
 culminating -point, and called forth the exclamation 
 from one who had spent his life in the East, that its 
 fertility was only exceeded by the far-famed valley of 
 Cashmere. The absence of farmhouses and the rare 
 occurrence of small villages cannot but attract atten- 
 tion : it is perhaps an evidence of the normal existence 
 of brigandage, the population being chiefly distributed 
 in towns of a size strong enough to hold their own. 
 
 " Nearing the Adriatic shore, we sighted on our right 
 the miniature republic of San Marino, whose territory 
 consists of the isolated rock of that name, crowned on 
 its loftiest pinnacle by a fort overlooking the city, 
 which is itself perched on a projecting crag half-way 
 up the mountain. The refuge of a band of primitive 
 Christians, its origin and history are as romantic as its 
 physical and political position, the little commonwealth 
 being amenable to no outside authority, and recognising 
 only its own traditionary laws. It dates as far back as 
 the persecuting days of Diocletian, when Marino, a 
 Dalmatian mason, followed by a band of hunted fellow- 
 Christians, sought the fastnesses of the mountain, and 
 obtaining a gift of the rock, Marino founded, if we may 
 so speak, the smallest independent community in the 
 civilised world, and which now bears his name. Fit 
 emblem of its faith, the rock has stood the test of ages. 
 Owing to its great elevation the climate of San Marino 
 is very variable, and its inhabitants are reputed to be 
 extremely jealous of intercourse with the outer world, 
 
44 MEMOIR. 
 
 lest innovations creeping in should modernise their 
 time-hallowed institutions. And there, on that primi- 
 tive spot, the drama of human life has been enacted 
 in all its phases * from dawn to sunset,' through all the 
 episodes of joy and grief, of life and love and death. 
 
 "But adieu to sentiment and San Marino, and on 
 to Eimini, which, thanks to early rising, we reached at 
 noon, giving first our undivided attention to creature 
 comforts, and a satisfied inspection of the tidy rooms 
 at ' I Tre Ee.' We next hurried to the Adriatic shore, 
 its distance from the hotel being now about a quarter 
 of a mile, but the sultry heat magnified it tenfold. 
 Arrived on the flat sandy beach, the most deductive 
 imagination failed to trace the outline of the opposite 
 Dalmatian coast, the ripple of the wave being lost in a 
 soft haze. We had to content ourselves with a view of 
 fishing-smacks and other small craft crowding the port 
 of Eimini, and our naturalists found consolation in 
 carrying away some packets of Foraminifera, which 
 were afterwards identified by an expert in England. 
 Threading, and of course losing, our way through the 
 poor seaward locality, evidently the quarters of a fish- 
 ing community, ... we reached the Arch of Augustus. 
 It is much more decayed than the Bridge of Augustus 
 which spans the Marecchia, and which we crossed on our 
 entry into Eimini, but reserved for a leisurely survey 
 in the evening. The massive blocks of which this 
 noble bridge is built, held together without cement or 
 mortar, [locally] characterise the masonry of the grand 
 old Eoman, and remind one forcibly that we of later 
 ages do not transmit such enduring monuments to pos- 
 terity. The Eimini churches are said to be enriched 
 by some good paintings; but we had to rest satisfied 
 with a cursory view of the cathedral, which is full of 
 
MEMOIR. 45 
 
 memorials of the Malatesta, the great family of Eimini. 
 . . . Possibly the building shown as the house of Fran- 
 cesca is but traditionary, and only indicates the site of 
 the real dwelling ; but the intelligent bookseller who 
 volunteered to accompany us to the spot declared that 
 such was not the case. . . . 
 
 **The road now ran like a low railway embankment 
 through a watery series of swamps, covered with a net- 
 work of the magnificent white water-lily (Nymphea 
 alba), on our right the southern section of the Pineta, 
 or Pine Forest, fringing the shore. Kavenna Stone 
 pines (the Pimis Pinea of botanists) are noted in Italy 
 for their beauty : the wood is well adapted for ship- 
 building, and the edible seed or nut, called 'Pincio,' 
 constitues a staple article of food for the peasant. 
 It is difficult to give a detailed description of this 
 renowned forest without incurring a just imputation 
 of plagiarism. ... * Kavenna's immemorial wood ' 
 must be thinned and stunted since the days when its 
 timbers built the fleets of Kome and masted the navies 
 of Venice ; it still, however, clothes a large portion of 
 sandy waste left by the receding Adriatic. It has been 
 the theme of historians, and has been apostrophised by 
 poets from Dante to Byron. . . . 
 
 " The town of Cesenatico, and, farther on, Cervia and 
 its salt-works, were the only objects of any interest 
 until near Kavenna, when we arrived at the noble 
 basilica of St Apollinare in Classe, which was built on 
 the margin of the sea, but is now four miles distant. 
 It is a perfect specimen of the earliest Christian an- 
 tiquity, and those who give credence to apostolic 
 succession will find here in excellent preservation a 
 chronological series of portraits in mosaic and paint- 
 ing of the bishops and archbishops of Eavenna down 
 
46 MEMOIR. 
 
 to a recent date, beginning with the martyr St Apol- 
 linaris of Antioch, whose ashes are deposited under the 
 high altar. It is impossible ... to give any idea of 
 the wonderful mosaics illustrative of Scripture history, 
 or to enumerate the great Greek sarcophagi and other 
 marble monuments of a church which is reputed to 
 possess a purer architecture than any of the early 
 ecclesiastical edifices of Kome. I was most struck 
 with the quaint character of some of the mosaics, a 
 flock of sheep invariably typifying the Church of 
 Christ, and here, as in the early basilicas of Ravenna, 
 the secondary place being assigned to the Virgin. . . . 
 
 " On entering Ravenna, the city once imperial, then 
 royal, and subsequently metropolis of the exarchate, 
 our feeling was one of keen disappointment : its situ- 
 ation in the midst of a malarious marsh had prepared 
 us for gloomy streets and a certain sepulchral air, but 
 the inhospitable scowl of the few faces we saw made an 
 unfavourable first impression. . . . 
 
 " It is truly a city of buried glories, and is said to 
 present in our day more perfect relics of the Byzantine 
 empire than Constantinople itself. In her domes and in 
 the ecclesiastical adaptation of her basilicas Ravenna has 
 also given to Christian Rome the elements of all her 
 church architecture. Moreover, it is not uninteresting 
 to observe, in these our days so ominous to the tem- 
 poral power of the Pope, that both the bishops and 
 city of Rome were originally under the exarch of 
 Ravenna. It was only when the conquering Pepin and 
 Charlemagne wrested Ravenna from the Lombards, and 
 presented the exarchate as a temporal possession to 
 the Pope, that ' the world beheld for the first time a 
 Christian bishop invested with the prerogatives of a 
 temporal prince, the choice of magistrates, the exercise 
 
MEMOIR. 47 
 
 of justice, the imposition of taxes, and the wealth of 
 the palace of Kavenna.' We felt perplexed amid the 
 antiquities of such a city. Should we first make a 
 pilgrimage to the tomb of Dante, or visit the sepulchre 
 of the Empress Galla Placidia, the strange woman who 
 was ' a slave twice, a queen, an empress,' and see her 
 colossal Greek sarcophagus and that of her brother the 
 Emperor Honorius ? Or should we quicken our steps to 
 the magnificent mausoleum of the Gothic king, Theo- 
 doric, whose regal dome was reared by himself, but 
 whose ashes, as those of an Arian heretic, have not 
 been sufi'ered to rest there ? Should we inspect mosaics 
 unique in Western Europe, or contemplate mytho- 
 logical sculpture side by side with Christian art, or 
 turn from Giotto's frescoes, or Guido's and Guercino's 
 paintings, to study the basilica of San Vitale, with 
 its Greek inscriptions untouched since the days of 
 Justinian, and which contains the famous tomb of the 
 exarch Isaac ? . . . Ought we to yield the palm to the 
 splendid mosaics of Arian bishops ? for Ravenna, once 
 the stronghold of Arian heresy, has seen ecclesiastical 
 as well as political revolutions. All these and more 
 we accomplished, but only by the most ingenious 
 economy of time and distance. Next morning at six 
 o'clock we had access to the mausoleum of King Theo- 
 doric, a mile beyond the city. To give some idea of 
 this massive circular structure, I may mention that the 
 cap of the dome, which is one solid block of limestone, 
 measures 30 feet in internal diameter ; and we gained 
 some interesting particulars of it and the locality from 
 a friendly sergeant of carabineers, whom we found with 
 a second on duty at that early hour. They had chosen 
 this spot as a good point of outlook on the surrounding 
 country, the mausoleum having been built on a slight 
 
48 MEMOIR. 
 
 eminence, but the soil is gradually rising round it. 
 The carabineer inquired our movements, and warned us 
 against the road we proposed to take by Lugo, which 
 he characterised as a nest of brigands, adding that 
 a gang of thirty-five had been apprehended there a few 
 weeks before, and that we must take care to conceal our 
 destination at all the inns. We assured our new friend 
 that we had nothing to lose, but he impressed us with 
 the necessity of caution by adding that in such a case 
 they might probably take the horses, leaving the 
 carriage, which, to say the least, would be extremely 
 inconvenient. On expressing our surprise at such a 
 state of things, the carabineers remarked that the small 
 proprietors and owners of vineyards were the bandit 
 pest of the Eomagna ; that they never hesitated to 
 attack property, and even life, when in lack of employ- 
 ment, or under pressure for piastres, some of them 
 practising brigandage as a wholesome excitement to 
 vary the routine of their quiet agricultural life ! It 
 was curious to see the enlivening effect of these ad- 
 monitions on the Italian mind of Schiavone, who en- 
 tered with alacrity into all the precautions for secrecy. 
 One word on Schiavone. Although Italian, he was 
 fair-haired, blue-eyed, tall, and lean, with a sanguine 
 complexion and head of the dolichocephalic type. But 
 for his gold earrings he might have passed for a Scottish 
 Highlander : Schiavone, however, did not rejoice in the 
 high cheek-bones so often characteristic of the Northern 
 Celt. 
 
 " We had a distant view of the modern port of 
 Eavenna, which gave a fair show of the rigging of 
 small traders : it communicates with the sea by a canal 
 several miles in length, and from its position must still 
 play an important part in the shipment of the wealth 
 
MEMOIR. 49 
 
 of the Eomagna. The commercial and fishing gear we 
 saw would not, however, lead one to infer that the 
 ancient port Candiano had figured in the world's his- 
 tory as a great Western naval station of the Greek 
 empire. Nor did we pause to examine the walls that 
 still encompass the city, hoary and crumbling with 
 time, and still presenting traces of demolition by their 
 besiegers. . . . 
 
 " Driving first to the library, which is specially rich 
 in missals, and would furnish many days' work, we 
 glanced at an illuminated psalter by Mary, Queen of 
 Scots, but failed to see Dante's MS. . . . We next 
 visited the monument that really had most interest 
 for us in Eavenna — the tomb of the great Dante. We 
 stood in profound silence by the Greek marble sarco- 
 phagus which contains all that is mortal of the poet 
 exile : it is enclosed in a small circular building sur- 
 mounted by a modest cupola, a very unpretending 
 edifice, but which is nevertheless one of the brightest 
 glories of Italy. Banished from Florence, Dante spent 
 his last years in Eavenna, where he had as his friend 
 and patron Guido da Polenta, father of the unfortunate 
 Francesca and Lord of Eavenna. 
 
 " The origin of Eavenna was like that of Venice ; it 
 was built on wooden piles in lagunes, but the Adriatic 
 has now receded nearly four miles. Let us hope that 
 better days are in store for this city, thrice a capital — 
 first of the [Western] Empire, then of the Gothic and 
 Longobardic kings, and finally of the exarchs. Truly 
 it is styled * fortress of dead empires.' . . . 
 
 " Pursuant to the carabineer s advice, Schiavone gave 
 out at the ^Bell' Emilia' that we were bound for 
 Ferrara ; but once outside the city walls, we tacked, 
 the Lugo route was abandoned, and we took a road 
 
 D 
 
50 MEMOIR. 
 
 across country to Faenza, on the Emilian Way, reach- 
 ing Imola by sunset. We met with no molestation, 
 and one would have imagined a long night's rest 
 grateful to wearied limbs ; but our two geologists, merci- 
 less to others as to themselves, named five o'clock next 
 morning to Signor Scarabelli, the courteous podesta of 
 Imola, who kindly volunteered to be their guide to the 
 ossiferous strata in the neighbourhood. After a few 
 hours' drive through fertile fields we regained Bologna." 
 A detour was made by Mantua and Verona, and Mrs 
 M* Call's experiences in these cities are detailed in the 
 paper entitled " In Mantua during the Austro-Italian 
 War." From Venice the travellers continued their 
 journey over " one of the grandest passes in the 
 Alps" — the Finstermtinz — to Innsbruck, and thence 
 homewards by the Ehine. 
 
 Grace M'Call to Miss M'Call 
 
 " Stouthall, 5tk August 1861. 
 
 " My dear Annie, — . . . You will be very pleased 
 to know that I have come to England this year much 
 stronger than for several years. . . . We have now 
 been a week at this beautiful place, . . . and have 
 enjoyed our visit to Colonel and Mrs Wood in spite 
 of the very untoward weather. 
 
 " Stouthall is situated on the peninsula of Gower, 
 about fourteen miles from Swansea, which is the 
 nearest railway-station, so you can fancy how secluded 
 and quiet the country is. The house is a very hand- 
 some one, containing a fine old hall full of family 
 portraits. We were able to get out the first two 
 or three days, and went to see the pretty coast 
 scenery in the immediate neighbourhood. . . . To-day 
 the weather is still more rainy and windy. Several 
 
MEMOIR. • 51 
 
 bone-caves were discovered by Colonel Wood some 
 years since, and these afford special interest for Uncle 
 Hugh. 
 
 ''Before coming here we were four days at Usk in 
 Monmouthshire, staying with a distant cousin, Mr 
 Thomas Falconer, who is a county judge, but had 
 then an interval between his circuit duties. A deaf- 
 and-dumb brother lives with him, to whom he is 
 exceedingly kind. Louie and I felt a difficulty at first 
 in carrying on a conversation with him, but after the 
 second day we talked by writing on slips of paper. 
 He is wonderfully cheerful and intelligent, and takes 
 a lively interest in the Volunteer movement, being a 
 second behind the others in executing the movements, 
 which he does with great precision. I am trying to 
 employ these wet days in painting. Mrs Wood is 
 really an artist, and she kindly helps me, showing me 
 how to colour. . . . — Believe me, your affectionate 
 sister, Geace A. M'Call." 
 
 To the Same. 
 
 "31 Sackville Street, 21th Aug. 1861. 
 
 " My dear Annie, — . . . We returned from Wales 
 a few days since, or rather from Chepstow, where we 
 stayed to see Tintern Abbey and the beautiful banks 
 of the Wye. Beautiful as the river scenery is, I do 
 not consider it finer than our own Findhorn in the 
 north : the Wye is richer and much greater in extent, 
 but does not equal the Findhorn in wild beauty. . . . 
 AVe had a letter from Kobert by last mail, dated 19th 
 July, from Allyghur, where he had returned from 
 Moradabad after a distressingly hot march. . . . He 
 says had it not been for his strong constitution he 
 would have been knocked up altogether. . . . London 
 
52 MEMOIR. 
 
 is usually such a whirl that I truly prefer the quiet 
 and dulness of the present month to the hurry and 
 bustle of other times of the year. We are to dine 
 at Sir Charles LyelFs to-night. . . . Thank you again, 
 dear Annie, for your letter : it is such a comfort to me 
 to hear of you all. . . . — Believe me, your affectionate 
 sister, Grace A. M*Call." 
 
 About this date an intimacy began with Mrs 
 Murchison {nee Clara Bickersteth), the wife of Dr 
 Charles Murchison, F.R.S., which continued through 
 life. Dr Murchison was also on an intimate footing 
 with Dr Hugh Falconer, and afterwards edited his 
 geological memoirs in two volumes, preceded by a 
 short biographical sketch. Another friend and neigh- 
 bour of a later date was Miss Jane Thomson, between 
 whom and my sister little notes in Italian often 
 passed ; and with Mrs Warington Smyth (now Lady 
 Smyth) she was also on affectionate terms. 
 
 From 1861 until Dr Falconer's lamented death in 
 1865 Grace M*Call resided with him at 21 Park 
 Crescent, London ; and the same house, when occupied 
 by his brother Charles, continued to be her home 
 until her marriage in 1870. They had near neighbours, 
 and the pleasantest of friends, in Sir Charles Wheat- 
 stone, his young daughters (Mrs Turle, Mrs Sabine, 
 and Miss Angela Wheatstone), and in Mrs Gwyn 
 Jeffreys, Mrs James Fraser, and their families. Mrs 
 M'Call paid frequent visits to her mother in Scotland, 
 and when in Edinburgh we note that she attended 
 Professor Masson's Lectures on English Literature, and 
 in London she studied Italian under Professor Volpe. 
 Another trip to Paris of some weeks' duration with 
 her sister, Isabella Milne, in 1867, was also an enjoy- 
 
MEMOIR. 53 
 
 ment. That Dr Falconer always welcomed his niece's 
 return is evident from his letters : — 
 
 "A blank day — no note from you. I have there- 
 fore ordered the fatted calf not to be killed until 
 something more definite transpires." 
 
 H. Falconer to G, MCall. 
 
 " [London,] Wth October [1863]. 
 
 "My dear Grace, — A few lines to say that I had 
 your note this morning, which has not contributed 
 
 to brighten me up for the day. Poor , I hope and 
 
 trust she is not going to have a sharp attack, but 
 what business has a young puss like her to have 
 pains and aches in her bones ? Let her leave that to 
 old fogies like me. That weary, weary Edinburgh, 
 that there ever should have been an Edinburgh ! . . . 
 I dare not now say a word about when you are 
 expected. Les domestiques of a morning speak daggers 
 of impatient inquiry by their looks, but I make no 
 sign. . . . Eemember the telegram when you do really 
 and bodily make a start. — With love to all, &c., &c., 
 
 H. Falconer." 
 
 H. Falconer to G. MCalL 
 
 "21 Park Crescent, I5tk Oct. [1863]. 
 
 "My dear Grace, — I know that you are exerting 
 every nerve to come south, and that nothing except a 
 serious necessity would have led you to delay your 
 start. . . . But remembering as I do the terrible Oc- 
 tober and November of last year at Edinburgh, I shall 
 not be at ease till the bandboxes containing you and 
 Louie, properly packed up, are safely delivered inside 
 my door." 
 
64 MEMOIR. 
 
 Dr Falconer accompanied his friend Mr George Busk, 
 F.E.S., to Gibraltar in September 1864, and on the 
 return journey he writes to his niece : — 
 
 H. Falconer to G. M'Call 
 
 " Madrid, \^th Oct. 1864. 
 
 " My dear Grace, — . . . You appear to be amused 
 by the incidents of my first letter. You have now to 
 open the ready flood-gates of your eyes for a series of dis- 
 asters, which have persecuted us ever since ; but do not 
 give way too much, as I am perfectly safe and sound. 
 In the first place, the English Cadiz steamer left Gib- 
 raltar a day before her time, without giving us warning, 
 so that we lost two days of our scant time. Next, we 
 left in a crazy Spanish cock-boat of a steamer in a gale 
 for Cadiz, and she delivered us there without swamping. 
 We hurred on from Cadiz to Seville and Cordova, both 
 of which are glorious for their Saracenic monuments, 
 and worth a journey to Spain, if there was nothing else 
 to be seen. . . . Cordova is, if anything, still more re- 
 warding in its cathedral, formerly a Moorish mosque. 
 Nothing in the wide world to surpass it as a worthy 
 temple for the worship of the Deity. . . . Elephants 
 and rhinoceroses, with a friendly reception from the 
 Dons, awaiting for us at both places. From Cordova 
 we had to take a diligence to strike on the Madrid 
 railway at Santa Cruz de Mudela, in the best of times 
 a journey of twenty and a half hours over a mountain- 
 ous country. On Sunday the 16th we started at 1 p.m. 
 in the banquette (Spanish cupa), being the top front 
 berth behind the driver. On we drove at a tearing 
 pace, with a team of ten mules at each frequent stage, 
 up and down hill at a gallop, flogging and yelling at 
 the mules. It was very exhilarating and fine while it 
 
MEMOIR. 55 
 
 lasted — Busk beaming with delight. I had fallen 
 asleep by the time we reached the summit of the 
 Sierra Morena, twelve hours, when we suddenly- 
 stopped. The axle of the near hind wheel was red- 
 hot, and the nave of the wheel smouldering, with the 
 axle bent. On removing the wheel the axle was found 
 to be fissured half-way through with a cleft which 
 admitted my finger. Had it been English it must have 
 given way long before and we been dashed to pieces, 
 but being Spanish it held together for the grand crash, 
 which luckily was not reached. Here we stopped ; the 
 axle was taken off, and sent ten miles away to be 
 tinkered up into a serviceable condition. Fancy an 
 accident of this kind occurring on the Highland road 
 near Cairngorm, between two stages. We were on the 
 summit of the ridge of the Sierra — bitterly cold, at 
 the wretched hamlet of Las Navas de Tolosa, in the 
 country of Don Quixote, and next door to the * Venta 
 de Cadenas' — Dorothea and the wine -sacks. Such 
 sterile desolation never have you witnessed, not a 
 hovel to admit us within, hills and valleys without 
 water, without trees, without anything but starved 
 donkeys, lanky Dons, and pinched, scowling, inhospit- 
 able women. Thomas ^ in a delusive moment saw goats, 
 and thought he could forage for milk for us, but in 
 vain. The goats of La Mancha yield no milk, there 
 are no sheep nor cows, and therefore no flesh, no 
 poultry, no eggs, no nothing eatable. Busk in a frantic 
 moment of starvation impulse called for cheese, but 
 something foul deluged with rancid lamp -oil was put 
 before him on a dirty plate. ... I wildly proposed 
 to be ofi", to walk the remaining part of the journey, 
 about forty miles ; but not a cart was procurable in the 
 
 ^ Thomas Gay, Dr Falconer's faithful and attached servant. 
 
56 MEMOIR. 
 
 whole country for our baggage, and that notion had 
 to be given up. At length we made a fresh but false 
 start : after going a hundred yards, the repaired axle 
 again gave way. Basta ! why need I harrow your 
 feelings with further details. Two nights had I to 
 pass in the open air on the summit of the diligence 
 at that doleful hamlet of Las Navas de Tolosa. At 
 length the damage was a second time tinkered up, in 
 a break-neck condition, the axle drenched with water 
 at every stage to keep the red heat down, and in fear 
 and trembling did we at last reach Santa Cruz de 
 Mudela, after forty -five hours' journey, on starvation 
 rations, and necks unbroken. From Santa Cruz we got 
 to Madrid by rail, where I had your letter. Busk getting 
 his pocket picked of his pocket-book, with its precious 
 contents — valuable notes, &c., but no money. 
 
 " We have been most kindly received here by Don 
 
 , a delightful, dumpy, old Spanish gentleman, a 
 
 thorough savant. . . . We have lost so much time that 
 we are unable to do more than pass through Madrid 
 without seeing the sights, except the gallery of pictures 
 and our fossil objects. The pictures are unrivalled. 
 Such Murillos, Velasquez, Kaphaels, Titians, Spagno- 
 lettos, &c., &c., as all the other joint collections in 
 Europe would not make up. The Pinacothek at Munich 
 is not to be mentioned in the same breath. I have 
 also been highly rewarded by fossil objects. I have 
 had a grand haul of new things. We start to-morrow 
 night by the mail train for Bayonne, where I shall 
 try and finish this letter and despatch it to you. I am 
 now tired, and go to roost. . . . 
 
 " Bayonne, 21s^ October. 
 
 "Arrived here this morning from Madrid en route 
 
MEMOIR. 57 
 
 to Bordeaux. . . . Still persecuted by road accidents. 
 The line from Madrid is single, and between Segovia 
 and Valladolid we found the road stopped by a train 
 which was thrown off the line. This led to a stoppage 
 of four hours, and the loss of the train en corre- 
 spondance, which should have taken us to Bordeaux. 
 The passengers slept last night in the carriages at 
 Hendaye, opposite Fontarabia. Busk and I with 
 Thomas had beds in a roadside inn." 
 
 " Bordeaux, 21»^, 9 p.m. 
 
 "We came here this evening. The stoppage has 
 lost us a day, and I fear a rendezvous with Lartet 
 and Christy at Montauban and Bruniquel. We leave 
 to-morrow for Bruniquel, from which Busk returns 
 dii-ect to London. . . . — With love to all, my dear 
 Grace, your ever affectionate uncle, H. Falconer." 
 
 In the untoward accident on the Sierra Morena Dr 
 Falconer contracted a chill, which developed into rheu- 
 matic fever and ended fatally on the Slst January 
 1865, to the heartfelt sorrow of his relatives and 
 numerous friends. Of him my sister writes : ^ — 
 
 " There was no naturalist who possessed Hugh 
 Falconer's vast palseontological and botanical know- 
 ledge combined (botany had been his profession), no 
 one more ready of access or more willing to co-operate 
 and impart that knowledge. His boyish mirth and racy 
 originality made him a brilliant companion, while 
 underlying all the glee and laughter-provoking sallies 
 there was the deeply affectionate and genial nature 
 which drew Joseph Prestwich as with a magnet." 
 
 1 Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Prestwich. Written and Edited by 
 his Wife. P. 195. 
 
58 MEMOIR. 
 
 The following letter was written on the occasion of 
 Grace's engagement to Mr (afterwards Sir Joseph) 
 Prestwich, the distinguished geologist : — 
 
 G. MCall to A. M'CalL 
 
 "21 Park Crescent, Portland Place, 
 5lnd Dec. [1869]. 
 
 "My dearest Annie, — I must send a few lines to 
 respond and thank you for your dear, affectionate 
 letter. ... I shall treasure it as long as I live. . . . 
 Mr Prestwich is beloved and respected by every one, 
 and I feel so very happy — not the less so that you 
 all send me your approval and blessing. 
 
 "Dr Leckie has just been in, and says what is so 
 true, that if dear Uncle Hugh had been spared he 
 would have been so overjoyed. . . . Tell the dear 
 mother that when her little note comes I shall be 
 so delighted, but I feel happy now through you to 
 have her love and blessing. — Ever, dearest Annie, your 
 affectionate sister, Grace A. M'Call." 
 
 Their marriage was not long delayed ; it took place 
 on the 26th February 1870, in St Marylebone Church, 
 London, a highly valued friend, the Eev. Lomas Miles, 
 rector of Coreley, Salop, officiating. With Mr Miles's 
 daughters, especially Mrs Joyce, Mrs Prestwich and her 
 sisters had been on terms of intimacy for many years. 
 An account of the wedding tour to France and Italy, 
 and of the after-tenor of their life at Darent-Hulme 
 and subsequently at Oxford, is to be found in Lady 
 Prestwich's memoir of her husband. That their married 
 life began auspiciously at Darent-Hulme appears in the 
 same biography : — 
 
 " They reached home in time for the outburst of the 
 
MEMOIR. 59 
 
 early summer, for the blossoming of tlie may, the 
 lilacs, and laburnums." And again in a letter : "When 
 we arrived on Friday the bells rang a merry peal, and 
 the villagers assembled, cheering and throwing flowers 
 on us. At the house door there was a crowd of girls 
 with lapfuls of primroses and wallflowers, with which 
 they strewed the passage and stairs. On Sunday the 
 bells rang between services, which took us quite by 
 surprise." 
 
 Darent-Hulme, situated above the pretty village of 
 Shoreham, and five miles from Sevenoaks, was origin- 
 ally a dry chalk down, devoid of trees, and apparently 
 without water, but a well 168 feet deep had been sunk, 
 and under Mr Prestwich's personal direction the ground 
 was thickly planted with numerous varieties of shrubs 
 and trees : a picturesque house illustrative of geology 
 had also been built. 
 
 In 1874 Mr Prestwich, who had retired from city 
 life, was nominated Professor of Geology at Oxford, 
 an appointment held by him until 1887. A house was 
 taken first in Broad Street, and latterly in St Giles, 
 Oxford ; but the long vacation was spent at Darent- 
 Hulme, where Professor and Mrs Prestwich had now 
 an additional tie in the friendship of the Kev. J. and 
 Mrs Lovett Cameron and their family at Shoreham 
 vicarage. The rose season at Darent-Hulme had a 
 special charm for Grace Prestwich. Eager for others 
 to share in the delight they gave her, boxes of roses 
 were constantly posted by her to sick friends, so 
 that the rose - trees were often entirely denuded of 
 blossoms. The garden and gardening plans were, with 
 this exception, left almost entirely in her husband's 
 hands. Christmas generally found them with Professor 
 Prestwich's brother-in-law and sister, Mr and Mrs 
 
60 MEMOIR. 
 
 Russell Scott, at the Manor House, Old Eastbourne, 
 and they were constant and welcome guests at Mr 
 Charles Falconer's, the " best of relatives," whose house 
 in Park Crescent, London, always open to them, was 
 like a second home to his niece. Visits to France, to 
 the Channel Islands, to Scotland, Wales, and the 
 south coast of England, are also recorded in the 
 * Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Prestwich.' With 
 regard to their reception at Oxford, Mrs Prestwich 
 writes in the same volume that it " was the kindest, 
 and not from the science side only, but from all sides. 
 They soon came under the spell of the ancient home 
 of learning, and perceived that there was a subtle 
 essence in its mental atmosphere which made it some- 
 what different from any other. They felt the fascin- 
 ation of the place and were sensible of their privilege." 
 She refers to the '^most hospitable kindness" with 
 which they were received by Dr (afterwards Sir Henry) 
 Acland and Mrs Acland " of saintly memory," and to 
 the friendly welcome of the Dean of Christchurch and 
 Mrs Liddell. As a member of council, Grace Prestwich 
 took an active interest in the establishment and pros- 
 perity of " Somerville Hall," now " Somerville College," 
 and in " The Sarah Acland Home for Nurses," from its 
 foundation : she was also a regular visitor for some 
 years at the Oxford Infirmary, where the surgical ward 
 for men and boys was allotted to her. Not only was 
 Professor Prestwich ably assisted by his wife in the 
 publication of his standard work, ' Geology, Chemical, 
 Physical, and Stratigraphical,' but her intelligent help 
 was of great value to him in the preparation of 
 scientific papers as well as of geological lectures and 
 diagrams. She was also a constant attendant at his 
 lectures in the Museum. The country round Oxford 
 
31EM0IR. 61 
 
 was carefully studied by Professor Prestwich. in antici- 
 pation of his annual geological excursions, and his wife 
 never failed to accompany him on these expeditions. 
 Apart from the geology of the district, they both de- 
 lighted in the historical associations and old churches, 
 and never went past a church without endeavouring to 
 see it, and it was while geologising in the Chilterns 
 (1882) that Mrs Prestwich's attention was arrested by 
 the old-world village and Almshouses of Ewelme. 
 
 Of Mrs Prestwich's two novels, the first, * The Harbour 
 Bar : A Tale of Scottish Life,' was published anony- 
 mously by Messrs Macmillan in 1875, a cheaper edition 
 in one volume following next year ; the other, * Enga,' 
 appeared in 1880. Elsie, the heroine of * The Harbour 
 Bar,' is a lifelike study of a true-hearted woman ; there 
 are some charming pictures of child life as well as much 
 genial humour throughout the book, and it is with a 
 firm yet S37mpathetic hand that Grace Prestwich por- 
 trays Scottish customs and different types of Scottish 
 character. Above all, we have a powerful and heart- 
 stirring scene in her rendering of the storm, when the 
 fierce war of the elements is contrasted with the hope- 
 less, repressed anguish of the principal suff'erers. Many 
 of the descriptions of scenery in both novels are taken 
 from Mrs Prestwich's recollections of her early life, and 
 in the quotation with which the first chapter of * The 
 Harbour Bar' begins, we have an exact expression of 
 her own patriotic sentiments : — 
 
 " Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, 
 Land of the mountain and the flood, 
 Land of my sires ! what mortal hand 
 Can e'er untie the filial band 
 That knits me to thy rugged strand ! " 
 
 The subjoined passage from a review of ' Enga ' is 
 
62 MEMOIR. 
 
 equally applicable to *Tlie Harbour Bar' : " Altogether 
 there is a high tone in the book, which is as healthy as 
 the wind-swept braes and foaming rivers which the 
 author can describe so well." 
 
 The year 1878 left sad memories with Grace Prest- 
 wich, the death of her beloved mother on the 5th of 
 January causing a blank in her life never to be filled 
 up. With reference to this bereavement she writes to 
 Miss M'Call : " Your letter, so loving, so true, and so 
 full of affection for Her, was like balm to us all. I 
 often think with gratified feeling of your love for Her." 
 
 Six " Chapters on Geology " were published in ' Every 
 Girl's Magazine' for 1880, and a paper on " Somerville 
 Hall " was contributed by Grace Prestwich to the same 
 periodical for April 1882. At one time it had been her 
 intention to reprint these " Chapters on Geology " in 
 book form with additions ; but owing to numerous other 
 occupations, and the state of her health, that task was 
 left unaccomplished. 
 
 So blameless was her life that an old servant of a 
 friend expressed astonishment that Mrs Prestwich had 
 not been taken away to a better world ; at last, how- 
 ever, she solved the difficulty and exclaimed, " Well, 
 Mrs Prestwich must just have been left to us on earth 
 as a specimen " ! Could praise go much further ? Grace 
 had remarkable powers of conciliation, and when dif- 
 ferences arose, and committee meetings waxed stormy, 
 an appeal would be made to her, as to one whose words 
 fell like "oil upon the waters." Punctuality, which 
 she had probably cultivated with the desire of sparing 
 the servants, and those associated with her, unnecessary 
 trouble, seemed to become a second nature, and through 
 life order and mental activity were leading features in 
 her character. The writer of this sketch remembers 
 
MEMOIR. 63 
 
 a short essay partly composed and written on a journey 
 from Edinburgh to London ; and she has a distinct 
 recollection of Grace in evening toilet in the drawing- 
 room at Oxford awaiting dinner guests, but occupied 
 until the last moment with original MS., or it might 
 be copying the Professor s lectures. On hearing the 
 door-bell Mrs Prestwich would quietly remove the MS., 
 and, drawing on her gloves, was ready to receive the 
 guests as soon as they were announced, and to ap- 
 preciate to the utmost the cheerful companionship and 
 new trains of thought. During the last years of her 
 life, when the literary work of the morning was over, 
 reading, of which she never seemed to weary, became 
 a constant resource and recreation, in some measure 
 taking the place of former social enjoyments, from 
 which failing health now, alas ! debarred her. 
 
 Grace had a great regard and esteem for Miss Made- 
 line Shaw Lefevre, Lady Principal of Somerville Hall ; 
 and a friendship with Mrs and Miss Weld, the sister 
 and niece of Lady Tennyson, led to an invitation to 
 stay at Aldworth. Unfortunately her husband s health 
 had become so precarious that Mrs Prestwich felt 
 obliged to decline it ; but she always regretted that 
 they had not gone to some neighbouring inn for a 
 night, so as to be introduced to the poet and Lady 
 Tennyson. Mrs Craik (Miss Mulock) also expressed 
 a wish to make Grace's acquaintance, and drove over 
 in her pony-carriage from Shortlands by appointment, 
 on a summer day, to spend a couple of hours at Darent- 
 Hulme. One of Grace's numerous Oxford friends was 
 Mrs KoUeston, niece of Sir Humphry Davy, and the 
 wife of the brilliant speaker, Dr George Eolleston, 
 Linacre Professor of Physiology. 
 
 Mr Prestwich resigned the Chair of Geology in 1887 ; 
 
64 MEMOIR. 
 
 but although Darent-Hulme was now their only home, 
 the geologist and Mrs Prestwich until 1894 spent some 
 months of the year in London with the sisters of the 
 latter. To the intense gratification of a bedridden aunt, 
 an octogenarian, who was one of the family party at 
 Park Crescent, Grace, if absent, always wrote an extra 
 weekly letter, which by her request was not given to 
 the invalid until Sunday morning. Never was letter 
 more gratefully appreciated than by the old lady, 
 whose strict observance of the Sunday, as a rule, did 
 not permit of any lighter literature than unlimited 
 sermons upon that day. 
 
 The honour of knighthood was conferred upon the 
 geologist at the New Year 1896, but Sir Joseph did 
 not live long to enjoy it : an illness of eight months, 
 through which his wife tended him with unwearied 
 devotion, terminated fatally at Darent-Hulme on the 
 23rd June 1896. The kind sympathy of relations and 
 friends was very helpful to Lady Prestwich in her 
 sorrow, especially that of the Kev. K. Ashington and 
 Mrs Bullen at Shoreham Vicarage ; but the grief and 
 fatigue incidental on her husband's long illness and 
 death seriously affected her, accelerating the heart 
 disease from which she suffered. But although for 
 some years an invalid on the sofa, her days were fully 
 occupied, and sufficient time and strength were yet 
 left to complete her ' Life and Letters of Sir Joseph 
 Prestwich,' published by Messrs Blackwood in June 
 1899. This memoir of the geologist was very favour- 
 ably reviewed by the press, and the writer of a notice 
 in the ' Times ' ^ describes the story of the life of Sir 
 Joseph Prestwich as ** lovingly and adequately told by 
 his widow in this volume, which will delight all who 
 
 1 The Times, August 1, 1899. 
 
MEMOIR. 65 
 
 knew the man and attract all who share his enthusiasm 
 for the science of which he was so great a master." 
 The critic goes on : "It has, too, a certain moral and 
 dramatic interest, because it shows how a man whose 
 bent was science and whose occupation was business 
 could reconcile those two conflicting interests and pur- 
 sue the ideal without neglecting the practical. But, 
 apart from this, the record of his life is one which the 
 non- geological reader will be tempted to pronounce 
 uneventful. It was no doubt a misgiving of this kind 
 which made Lady Prestwich hesitate to undertake a 
 biography of her distinguished husband. 'It might 
 not have been attempted,* she tells us, 'but for the 
 encouragement and prompting of Sir John Evans, who 
 urged that I could best tell of the home life, and that 
 the scientific publications, by the subject of the memoir, 
 had already spoken for themselves. I accordingly de- 
 cided to do my utmost in what, it is needless to say, 
 has been altogether a labour of love.' All the scientific 
 and personal friends of Prestwich will acknowledge that 
 Sir John Evans was well advised and Lady Prestwich 
 very happily inspired. She has told the story of the 
 home life in a perfectly simple and unafi'ected fashion, 
 and made a very charming picture of it, although it pre- 
 sents no very salient features beyond those of a loving 
 nature and a well-balanced mind combined with an 
 intense scientific enthusiasm. The story of Prestwich's 
 scientific career is, as Lady Prestwich says, best told 
 in his own writings ; but she adds to it that personal 
 charm which belongs to the record of his many and 
 lasting friendships, and which finds expression in his 
 familiar correspondence." 
 
 A fragment from Grace's MSS. requires no comment : — 
 "As we advance in age our view of life necessarily 
 
 E 
 
66 MEMOIR. 
 
 becomes more or less retrospective. We look back 
 on the years that have fled — those landmarks in the 
 passage of time, and only then, alas ! it may be, we 
 begin to appraise the world and the things of the world 
 at their true value. When we entered on the journey 
 we were buoyant with hope and eager expectancy ; 
 there was a charm for us in the mystery of the untried 
 road which only experience could unveil, and life 
 seemed to us then as if unending, as if it must last 
 for ever. But now, as its limits lessen, we are aghast 
 to find that for the short space which remains to be 
 traversed. Time, which before seemed illimitable, seems 
 to us now to hurry on at an accelerated pace. We 
 would fain take breath and arrest its rapid passage, 
 but it is inexorable, and every year now glides on 
 faster than the one before it. How familiar the 
 saying is among the elderly and the aged, * I cannot 
 understand how it is the years go so fast now — ever 
 so much faster than they did in my young days.' And 
 now that the close is near, we naturally ask. What have 
 we accomplished in our life ? What use have we made 
 of our talents and opportunities ? What track have we 
 made, or is our journey to be compared to the passage 
 of a frail bark over the waters, which leaves no trace to 
 tell behind ? What work have we done in God's world ? 
 What have we done to promote His glory, and the well- 
 being of our brethren and sisters ? Shall we through 
 our personal agency leave the world better than we 
 found it? Or, like brute beasts, shall we go to the 
 grave and leave no impress behind us ? Such questions 
 are likely to arise in every thinking mind, and in 
 most cases must be answered in sorrowful conscious- 
 ness." . . . 
 
 In 1896 Lady Prestwich's sisters, by her desire, made 
 
MEMOIR. 67 
 
 Darent-Hulme their home, and different members of 
 Sir Joseph's family, including his sisters, Mrs Tomkins 
 and Miss Emily Prestwich, were ever welcome guests, 
 as were many kind neighbours ; friends too, living at a 
 distance, would considerately come, if only for a glimpse 
 of the invalid, but all hospitalities were of the briefest. 
 It was a cause for regret during Grace's last illness that 
 Mrs James M'Call was unable to arrange for a short 
 farewell visit with her son and daughter. Sir John 
 and Lady Evans also, hearing of her precarious state, 
 arrived one day at Shoreham station, but too late — 
 the gentle spirit had that morning entered into rest. 
 Nil admirai'i was not one of Lady Prestwich 's 
 mottoes ; children were to her " like little angels," and 
 after seeing a beautiful neighbour, she would compare 
 the unconscious visitor to some lovely flower which 
 inspired her with similar admiration and pleasure. One 
 of her last drives was to soothe a dying woman in the 
 neighbourhood, for the poor and suffering were never 
 forgotten by her. 
 
 In the early summer of 1899 the horizon was narrow- 
 ing for Lady Prestwich ; little enjoyments were one by 
 one relinquished, and the afternoon drive through the 
 Kentish woods, bright with hyacinths and at that 
 season ringing with the songs of birds, was now an 
 uncertainty. At last the garden chair was no longer 
 wheeled out under the Cedrus atlantica on the lawn, 
 where the birds and squirrels were wont to come as if 
 to welcome and greet her, and from which she had a 
 wide view of the peaceful valley of the Darent. At 
 last she was obliged to resign the secretaryship of the 
 Shoreham Nursing Association, which she had held 
 since 1893, when, by her exertions and those of Miss 
 Helena James, a parish Jubilee nurse had been ap- 
 
68 MEMOIR. 
 
 pointed for the villages of Shoreham and Otford. Al- 
 though compelled to give up the society of her friends 
 and of little children in whom she delighted, Grace's 
 aflfection for them was not clouded : as long as strength 
 lasted she kept up letter- writing ; then letters were 
 dictated ; and finally loving messages alone were penned 
 by other hands, but these continued to the last day of 
 her life, and were very solemn and touching. Lady 
 Prestwich had always set a high value on sympathy 
 and friendship, clinging to them through life, and 
 Shakespeare's noble lines — 
 
 " The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
 Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel," — 
 
 fitly represent her mental attitude in this respect. Al- 
 though so sufi*ering, she was to the end informed of any 
 inquiries or letters from residents in the district, and 
 fully appreciated the feeling that prompted them : they 
 were very dear and welcome to her. Among these 
 neighbours may be mentioned Lady Collet and Mrs 
 Collet, Mrs Chaplin, Lady Dunsany, Mrs Norman, Mrs 
 Turner — the friend of her girlhood — Lady Udny, the 
 Misses Waring, and many others. Ever a charming 
 companion and eager for the happiness of those around 
 her, in small details as well as in more serious afiairs, 
 Grace would endeavour by playful remarks to lighten 
 the gloom of the sick-room. She and her sisters were 
 now sensible of the great change inexorably approach- 
 ing, and words of afi'ection to them and of loving trust 
 in her Saviour were often upon her lips, as well as the 
 verses of a favourite hymn beginning — 
 
 " Why those fears ? Behold, 'tis Jesus 
 Holds the helm and guides the ship." 
 
 With sorrowing hearts they watched beside her until 
 
MEMOIR. 69 
 
 the morning of the 31st of August, when light ineiffable 
 dawned on the sufferer, leaving as it brightened the 
 impress of heavenly joy and peace upon her features. 
 All that is mortal of her rests beneath the granite cross 
 erected to her husband's memory in the quiet church- 
 yard of Shoreham. In the absence of the Eev. Norman 
 Kadcliffe, the funeral service was conducted by the Eev. 
 E. A. Bullen^ and the Eev. T. C. WHd, the choir 
 singing the hymn — 
 
 " How bright these glorious spirits shine." 
 
 The following letter appeared in the Shoreham 
 Parish Magazine for October 1899 : — 
 
 " My dear Friends, — . . . During the vicar's 
 absence a sad event has overtaken us in the death of 
 Lady Prestwich. Although every one knew that she 
 had been very ill for some time, yet when the end 
 came we all felt shocked. Her death, coming so soon 
 after Mrs Mildmay's, made the parish feel to be in 
 mourning, and seem empty and cold. We have all 
 been accustomed to think of Lady Prestwich as a 
 gentle saint in our midst, and we feel the poorer for 
 her departure. But it is consoling to think that she 
 is now in a happier world, and surrounded by a warmer 
 love than can be experienced here. We cannot help 
 thinking of her when we pray in the Church Militant 
 Prayer : * And we also bless Thy holy name for all Thy 
 servants departed this life in Thy faith and fear ; be- 
 seeching Thee to give us grace so to follow their good 
 examples, that with them we may be partakers of Thy 
 heavenly kingdom.' — Yours very truly, 
 
 T. Cecil Wild." 
 
 * Former vicar of Shoreham, Kent. 
 
70 MEMOIR. 
 
 This short biographical sketch now closes with a 
 tribute to Lady Prestwich's memory from the anniver- 
 sary address given by Mr Whitaker, President of the 
 Geological Society for 1899:^ — 
 
 " I may fairly conclude these obituary notices with 
 a reference to a person never enrolled among our 
 Fellows, prevented from being so, indeed, by sex alone. 
 The niece of Falconer, the wife of Prestwich, lived 
 little more than long enough to see the production of 
 the labour of her latest years, the Life of her husband. 
 This work of love is one of the most notable of the 
 geological books of last year, and it gives an account 
 of the life and labours of one of our greatest geologists, 
 illustrating the way in which he was led to take up 
 those various lines of research wherein he so highly 
 distinguished himself. 
 
 "Grace Anne, Lady Prestwich, died on August 31, 
 1899, at the age of sixty-six, to the sorrow of all who 
 knew her." 
 
 1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. Ivi. p. Ixi. 
 
I. 
 
 JOURNEYS IN FEANCE AND ITALY 
 
KECOLLECTIONS OF M. BOUCHER DE 
 PERTHES : 
 
 BEING SOME ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY OF THE 
 DISCOVERY OF FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 
 
 M. Boucher de Perthes was no geologist. He him- 
 self, in one of his numerous letters to an English friend, 
 disclaimed any right to the title in these words, "«7e 
 Tie suis pas un savant et en geologic moins qyHen autre 
 chose!' Yet his name is so inseparably associated with 
 the discovery of flint implements in beds of geological 
 age, that a few notes of a day spent with him before 
 these flints were generally accepted and recognised as 
 the handiwork of man may be of interest, now that 
 their artificial origin is established, and their signifi- 
 cance in being something more than simple natural 
 objects is understood. Unfortunately, our antiquarian 
 of Abbeville ^ had given forth his geological theories 
 before he had found his flint implements. Hence, 
 when his far-sighted perseverance was rewarded by the 
 discovery of works of primitive man — which he had 
 over and over again predicted — geologists gave neither 
 heed nor attention to his announcements, and he had 
 to endure no little ridicule and neglect. 
 
 Jacques Boucher de Cr^vecoeur de Perthes was not 
 
 ^ Abbeville is situated in the Somme valley, north-west of Amiens. 
 
74 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 always known by the name of De Perthes. He was 
 born at Kethel in 1788, and it was not until the 16th 
 September 1818, during the reign of Louis XVIII., 
 that a royal decree authorised him to assume his 
 mother's name of De Perthes, *'she being the last de- 
 scendant of Pierre de Perthes and Marguerite Eomee, 
 cousin-german of Joan of Arc." His father held office 
 in the administration of the customs, and at the age of 
 sixteen the young Jacques was enrolled in the same 
 service, and was sent to Marseilles. After a few months 
 there, he resided successively at Genoa, Leghorn, and 
 in several German towns, returning to France in 1811, 
 after having been engaged in missions connected with 
 his service to different countries. For a short time 
 he was sub-director of the Paris customs, and finally in 
 1825 succeeded his father as director of the Douane at 
 Abbeville, an office which he filled until his retirement 
 from the service in 1853. This post was then can- 
 celled, having only been held by father and son. Dur- 
 ing nearly thirty-six years he filled the presidential 
 chair of the Societe d'Emulation at Abbeville, the 
 Memoirs of which testify to his unremitting industry 
 and to the wide range of subjects on which he wrote. 
 He was rarely absent from the meetings of this society, 
 except when he traversed Europe to collect the materials 
 which he gave to the world in his many books of 
 travels. His ^Hommes et Choses' appeared in four 
 volumes ; the ' Voyage a Constantinople par I'ltalie, la 
 Sicile, et la Gr^ce ' came out in two volumes ; * Voyage 
 en Danemarck, en Su^de, et en Norv^ge,' as well as 
 * Voyage en Espagne et en Algerie en 1855,' 'Voyage 
 en Kussie en 1856,' and also 'Voyage en Angleterre, 
 Ecosse, et Irlande en I860,' besides others, appeared 
 in single volumes. He also published his presidential 
 addresses to the Societe d'Emulation, likewise several 
 
M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES. 75 
 
 discourses to Abbeville workmen, such as '* On Probity," 
 ** On Courage, Bravery, &c.," " On the Education of the 
 Poor," " On Poverty," " On Obedience to the Laws," 
 ** On the Influence of Charity," ** On innate Ideas, Mem- 
 ory, and Instinct," and several on questions of political 
 economy. 
 
 In many respects M. Boucher de Perthes was a man 
 in advance of his time. Besides his addresses to work- 
 men he was engaged in numerous philanthropic schemes, 
 and he was a warm advocate for the settlement of in- 
 ternational quarrels by arbitration, at a time when few 
 Frenchmen held such opinions. His versatile pen was 
 never idle. We know little more of his several trage- 
 dies and comedies than their names. No man was ever 
 more possessed by the cacoethes scrihendi. There is, 
 in short, scarcely a subject on which he did not touch 
 — from plays, poems, romances, satires, and ballads, on 
 to " Spontaneous Generation " and to that cause celebre, 
 " The Human Jaw of Moulin Quignon." But he was es- 
 sentially an archaeologist and antiquarian. Thus at the 
 date of our visit to Abbeville, now [1895] nearly seven- 
 and-thirty years ago, M. Boucher de Perthes was known 
 in France as a voluminous author of light literature, 
 but chiefly as a collector and writer on antiquities. 
 
 The first work in which he predicted the certainty 
 of traces of industrial remains of primitive man coming 
 to light was one in five volumes, entitled * De la Cre- 
 ation, Essai sur TOrigine et la Progression des Etres,' 
 which appeared in 1838. Yet long before that date 
 he had a preconceived idea of the discovery he was 
 about to make, the origin of which is recorded in the 
 first volume of his * Antiquites Celtiques et Antedilu- 
 viennes ' in 1847 : — 
 
 It was on a summer evening at Abbeville, while examining 
 a sand-pit at the end of the Faubourg Saint Gilles, that the idea 
 
76 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 occurred to me that instruments cut out of flint might be found 
 in Tertiary deposits. However, none of those about me exhib- 
 ited the slightest trace of workmanship. Some were still en- 
 crusted, others rubbed and worn round. Here and there a 
 broken one, yet without the least trace of man's labour. This 
 occurred in 1826. Several years passed by, and though I ex- 
 amined several localities, I discovered nothing. At last one 
 day I thought I recognised the work of man on a flint of about 
 12 centimetres in length, from which two pieces had been 
 chipped off. I submitted it to the examination of several archae- 
 ologists : not one could see in it anything more than a common 
 flint stone, accidentally broken by the workman's pick. In vain 
 I showed that the fracture was very ancient, and that the bed 
 from which it was taken had never before been disturbed. . . . 
 
 My convictions remained unshaken. I continued my search, 
 and soon discovered another, similar to the first, and cut in the 
 same manner : with great joy I tore it from the bed in which 
 it lay half-buried. I thought that the attention of my judges 
 would be awakened by the coincidence, — they were not even 
 willing to look at it. 
 
 I discovered a third. In my own opinion this amounted to 
 absolute proof. They did not doubt but that the flint was 
 really taken from an undisturbed bed of diluvium ; but as to 
 the workmanship, they discredited it, and concluded that it 
 had been broken like the others by the same cause — that the 
 fractures were all caused in the same manner. I then dis- 
 covered several large implements (haches). Here the evidence 
 of man's workmanship, I thought, should be clear to every one ; 
 but still it was only clear to myself. One day a fine axe in 
 flint was brought to me: in this case the workmanship was 
 incontestable, but I had not seen it taken from its bed. The 
 labourers assured me of the fact ; and its colour, and the re- 
 mains of the sand still adhering to it, were sufi&cient evidence. 
 Yet these incredulous persons insisted that it had not been 
 so taken, and as a reason gave that it could not have come 
 from the diluvium. I then recommenced the search for my- 
 self, &c. 
 
 It will thus be seen that M. de Perthes' anticipations 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES. 77 
 
 had put him upon the right track, and when in 1832 
 a trench was being excavated outside the ramparts of 
 Abbeville for the construction of a canal leading from 
 the Hocquet Gate to the Kouen Gate, he was all 
 eagerness to inspect the excavations, and to procure 
 any relics that might be exhumed. Two Celtic haches 
 with handles of deer-horn were found by the labourers, 
 and though only Neolithic or of comparatively recent 
 date, the discovery of them roused his enthusiasm to 
 the highest pitch. 
 
 We hear of no other extensive excavations until 
 1837, when works were resumed for the cutting of 
 trenches for the defence of the place. It was then 
 that M. Boucher de Perthes suggested that a Com- 
 mission should be appointed to watch the excavations, 
 and to secure any specimens or relics that the workmen 
 might come upon. Many of the members of the pro- 
 posed Commission happened to be busy men, others 
 were absent; their numbers dwindled away until the 
 Commission became represented by M. Boucher de 
 Perthes alone. He had, however, every assistance 
 from the engineer officers directing the works, and 
 he made a point of purchasing any fragments that 
 the workmen might find, besides ojffering an extra 
 reward for each specimen of any interest. 
 
 A series of thin beds of shingle or pebbles, alternating 
 with peat, were exposed, and underneath the lowest 
 was one of carbonised wood. Below this last was a 
 sort of open platform made of small joists of oak 
 roughly squared, all unmistakably the work of human 
 hands. There was nothing remarkable in the super- 
 position of these beds, which were distinctly within 
 the human period; but the exposure of them was 
 interesting, and they incited M. de Perthes to under- 
 
78 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 take on his own account excavations in the older 
 undisturbed gravels of the valley. The cuttings into 
 the shingly beds at the Eouen Gate acted as a spur 
 — if spur were needed ; and when the diggings into 
 the older gravels were begun, M. de Perthes was 
 confident that he was on the point of some great 
 discovery. He employed his ample fortune liberally, 
 and when the workmen found the first old flint 
 implement, he promised a reward of double the 
 amount for the next, provided that he could see the 
 specimen in situ. 
 
 The first announcement of his discovery of a palaeo- 
 lithic flint implement in gravels of the age of the 
 Drift was in a work entitled ' De I'lndustrie primitive, 
 ou les Arts et leur origine,' published in 1846. In 
 a description of the gravels of Menchecourt, he records 
 the occurrence of this worked flint implement, and 
 asserted that it was found among remains or frag- 
 ments of bones of elephant, rhinoceros, and other 
 extinct animals at the bottom of a bed of gravel 
 underlying many metres of modern deposits. The 
 inference was clear. It made it probable that man 
 in this district had been a contemporary of these 
 extinct animals, and M. de Perthes, in recording the 
 fact, announces with enthusiasm that he felt impelled 
 to prosecute his researches with ardour, as he was 
 about to unfold a page of history hitherto unread. 
 In 1842 to 1843, three other flint implements were 
 exhumed from the same locality, thus confirming and 
 corroborating the evidence furnished by the first speci- 
 men. As the excavations were carried on further, our 
 antiquarian by degrees amassed more and more of his 
 pieces justificatifs, being confident in the hope that 
 some day — maybe some far-ofi" date — in spite of the 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES. 79 
 
 sneers of an unbelieving public, the facts would ulti- 
 mately be acknowledged, and would speak for them- 
 selves. 
 
 In 1849 the first of the three volumes of his 
 ^Antiquites Celtiques et Antediluviennes ' appeared, 
 announcing that numbers of rudely worked flint imple- 
 ments had been met with in the old undisturbed beds 
 of gravel. The two districts which yielded the greatest 
 harvest were Amiens and Abbeville ; the first embraced 
 St Acheul and Moutiers, while the Abbeville district 
 included Menchecourt, St Gilles, and Moulin Quignon. 
 He repeated his assertion that these worked and 
 chipped flints, to which he assigned so high an anti- 
 quity, were found at depths varying from 9 to 16 
 feet, and in association with bones of extinct animals. 
 His announcement was altogether at variance with the 
 preconceived and accepted axioms on the geological 
 age of the human race ; he was notorious for having 
 previously propounded theories regarding the antiquity 
 of man without any facts to support them ; therefore 
 it was not surprising that, when he did hit upon a 
 great discovery, he could not obtain a hearing, and 
 was treated as a wild visionary. One reason of the 
 general unbelief was that the figures in the book are 
 only in outline, and are mostly so badly executed, 
 and include so many that show no sign of work, that 
 they failed to do justice to the specimens. Yet, with 
 a patience which at this far distant date one cannot 
 think of without admiration, he urged his countrymen 
 to put his startling theories to the test, and make 
 excavations for themselves in unbroken ground; but 
 he was only laughed at, and men of science held 
 aloof. Nevertheless, undaunted he worked steadily on, 
 accumulating a large and miscellaneous collection. 
 
80 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 In England few men of science had heard mention 
 of his name. Still there was one English geologist 
 who knew of the reported discovery of so-called worked 
 flints, and who had it in view to visit Abbeville at 
 some convenient season, and judge of it for himself 
 Mr [afterwards Sir Joseph] Prestwich was apparently 
 the only one who, from his knowledge of the geology 
 of the Department of the Somme, thought it a fit 
 base for investigation. Other engagements, however, 
 prevented him carrying out this project, and in the 
 meantime his friend, the late Dr Hugh Falconer, who 
 had been engaged with him in the joint investigation 
 of Brixham Cave near Torquay, took the opportunity 
 in passing through Abbeville of paying a visit to M. 
 de Perthes, and inspecting his collection, though time 
 did not allow him to visit the localities where the 
 implements had been found. He was so impressed 
 with the statements of M. de Perthes, and with the 
 character of the implements, that he at once wrote 
 to Mr Prestwich and urged him to proceed to Abbe- 
 ville. With characteristic generosity he invariably 
 assigned the precedence to this friend, saying, " What 
 I did was to stir up the embers of your interest in 
 the matter into a quick flame." 
 
 It is right, however, to mention that in France there 
 was an exception to the general disbelief of the flints 
 having been fashioned by the hands of man — Dr 
 EigoUot of Amiens, who had been very antagonistic 
 to the views of M. de Perthes, but whose opinions 
 underwent a complete change after he had personally 
 examined the ground and the evidence. On his return 
 to Amiens he discovered similar flint implements in the 
 great gravel-pits at St Acheul near Amiens, which had 
 been excavated through and below an old Gallo-Romano 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES. 81 
 
 burying- ground. Dr Eigollot ultimately was so con- 
 vinced of the facts that he became one of the strongest 
 advocates for their recognition, and his interesting 
 memoir upon * Instruments en Silex trouves a St 
 Acheul/ published in 1855, was a special pleader on 
 their behalf: but Dr Eigollot was not known as a 
 geologist, and disbelief still prevailed. 
 
 Before giving an account of our reception at Abbe- 
 ville, we would fain notice an attractive portrait in our 
 possession. It is the lithographic likeness of a very 
 handsome man ; and as it is dated 1831, it must have 
 been taken when M. de Perthes was in the prime of 
 life. There does not seem to be much resemblance 
 between the original as we knew him and this picture, 
 if we except the large clear straight eyes, a certain regu- 
 larity of feature, and an expression of benevolence and 
 placidity common to both. But we only saw the sep- 
 tuagenarian, whereas this likeness must have been taken 
 when he was in his forty -third year. A profusion of 
 curls cluster about the high forehead and temples, and 
 the drapery, which French artists know so well how to 
 adjust for pictorial effect, consists of a velvet trimmed 
 cape, thrown back so as to show the collar of an em- 
 broidered uniform, and the orders which are displayed 
 on his breast. To the end of his days he took pleasure 
 in presenting this portrait, and this only to his personal 
 friends. He never would be drawn nor photographed 
 when advanced in years. 
 
 It was on a bitterly cold morning on the 1st of 
 November 1858 that we arrived at Abbeville. We 
 were on our way to Sicily, where Dr Falconer wished 
 to explore the bone-caves, and other caves on the shores 
 of the Mediterranean, and the writer had the privilege 
 of accompanying him as secretary. We were a day 
 
 F 
 
82 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 behind the date fixed for an interview with M. de 
 Perthes ; therefore, taking the earliest train from Bou- 
 logne, we deposited our luggage at the old '*Tete de 
 Boeuf " on arrival at Abbeville, and hurried on through 
 streets of pointed gables, where the sun had not had 
 time to melt the crisp frost of the night — on to the 
 house in the Kue des Minimes. It was a large old 
 building, which stood back from the street in an iron- 
 railed enclosure ; but our dismay was great to see at a 
 first glance that it was shuttered and blinded as if un- 
 tenanted, and only one window by the door was open, 
 a caleche with luggage standing as if for a traveller 
 on the point of departure. Five minutes later, and 
 another hand would have had to chronicle the first 
 recognition by English men of science of the old flint 
 implements of the Somme Valley. M. de Perthes 
 had made a point of coming in from the country for 
 the interview on the previous day, and thinking that we 
 had passed on our way, he was about to return there. 
 
 We were ushered into a small room on the ground- 
 floor, which was crowded with examples of medieval 
 art. There was no flint implement visible : the walls, 
 from ceiling to floor, were covered with old pictures, 
 specimens of bronzes and brasses, beautiful carvings, 
 prominent among them all being a great ebony crucifix. 
 In a few minutes M. de Perthes entered, and gave us 
 an eager welcome. The caleche had been counter- 
 manded, shutters unbarred, and Venetians thrown open, 
 — our arrival, in short, had intercepted the journey. 
 He was just upon seventy, vigorous and active, not at 
 all betraying his years. He looked a man carefully 
 preserved: the thick brown wig was unmistakably a 
 wig, and there was a suspicion — nay, a certainty — of 
 artificial colouring about his complexion. He showed 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES. 83 
 
 US his private study, which opened off the small outer 
 room, and which was literally crammed with curiosities. 
 The house from garret to ground -floor was a great 
 museum, the staircase walls lined with paintings, and 
 room after room devoted to one or other branch of art, 
 principally medieval. His collection of curios was 
 very cosmopolitan, much having been amassed doubtless 
 while on foreign travel. The roomy old house was 
 absolutely filled with relics and treasures of bygone 
 days, with not a single habitable-looking or comfortable 
 room in it, and must have been a dreary abode for any 
 other than its owner. 
 
 Finally, we were taken to the geological room or gal- 
 lery, containing the flints which were the object of our 
 journey to Abbeville. The collection was a magnificent 
 one and full of interest, and our host was almost 
 breathless with excitement in detailing the circum- 
 stances in which each specimen had been found. The 
 remainder of that memorable day was spent in this 
 gallery, but it nearly finished the unfortunate secretary. 
 The gallery was like an ice-house, there was no fire, 
 and the very handling of the flints was freezing work. 
 So much has been written and published about this 
 collection that I need only allude to it, and will tran- 
 scribe the letter which Dr Falconer wrote from the 
 "Tete de Boeuf" that same evening. 
 
 Abbbvillb, l8t Nov. 1858. 
 My dear Prestwich, — As the weather continued fine, I de- 
 termined on coming here to see Boucher de Perthes' collection. 
 I advised him of my intention from London, and my note 
 luckily found him in the neighbourhood. He good-naturedly 
 came in to receive me, and I have been richly rewarded. His 
 collection of wrought flint implements, and of the objects of 
 every description associated with them, far exceeds anything I 
 
84 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 expected to have seen, especially from a single locality. He 
 had made great additions since the publication of his first 
 volume, in the second — which I have now by me. He showed 
 me "flint" hatchets which he had dug wp with his own hands 
 mixed indiscriminately with the molars of U. primigeniics. I 
 examined and identified plates of the molars — and the flint 
 objects, which were got along with them. Abbeville is an out- 
 of-the-way place, very little visited, and the French savants, 
 who meet him in Paris, laugh at Monsieur de Perthes and his 
 researches. But after devoting the greater part of a day to his 
 vast collection, I am perfectly satisfied that there is a great deal 
 of fair presumptive evidence in favour of many of his specu- 
 lations regarding the remote antiquity of these industrial ob- 
 jects, and their association with animals now extinct. Monsieur 
 Boucher's hotel is from ground -floor to garret a continued 
 museum filled with pictures, medieval art, and Gaulish an- 
 tiquities, including antediluvian flint knives, fossil bones, &c. 
 If during next summer you should happen to be paying a visit 
 to France, let me strongly recommend you to come to Abbeville. 
 You could leave the following morning by an 8 a.m. train to 
 Paris, and I am sure you would be richly rewarded. You are 
 the only English geologist I know of who would go into the 
 subject con amore. I am satisfied that English geologists are 
 much behind the indications of the materials now in existence, 
 relative to this walk of post-glacial geology, and you are the 
 man to bring up the leeway. Boucher de Perthes is a very 
 courteous elderly French gentleman, the head of an old and 
 affluent family, — and if you wrote to him beforehand, he would 
 feel your visit a compliment, and treat it as such. 
 
 I saw no flint specimens in his collection so completely 
 whitened through and through as our flint knives — and noth- 
 ing exactly like the mysterious hatchet which I made up of 
 the two pieces. What I have seen here gives me still greater 
 impulse to persevere in our Brixham exploration. . . . 
 
 H. Falconer. 
 
 The result of this letter was that Mr Prestwich in 
 April 1859 made his first visit to Abbeville, where he 
 was shortly joined by some geological friends whom he 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES. 85 
 
 had invited to meet him there, and on the 26th of May 
 his paper, entitled * On the Occurrence of Flint-imple- 
 ments, associated with Kemains of Extinct Mammalia, 
 in Undisturbed Beds of a late Geological Period,' was 
 read to the Royal Society.^ This paper made a great 
 sensation, demonstrating as it did that a large portion 
 of the flints in M. de Perthes' collection were of human 
 workmanship, and pointing out their undoubted geo- 
 logical position. We shall quote one or two passages 
 from the abstract of this paper : — 
 
 At Abbeville the author was much struck with the extent of 
 M. Boucher de Perthes' collection. There were many forms of 
 flints in which he, however, failed to see traces of design or 
 work, and which he should only consider as accidental ; but 
 with regard to those flint-instruments termed 'axes' (haches) 
 by M. de Perthes, he entertains not the slightest doubt of their 
 artificial make. They are of two forms, generally from 4 to 10 
 inches long, . . . and were the work of a people probably 
 unacquainted with the use of metals. . . . The author was not 
 fortunate enough to find any specimens himself ; ^ but from the 
 experience of M. de Perthes, and the evidence of the workmen, 
 as well as from the condition of the specimens themselves, 
 he is fully satisfied of the correctness of that gentleman's 
 opinion, that they there also occur in beds of undisturbed 
 sand and gravel.^ . . . 
 
 With regard to the geological age of these beds, the author 
 refers them to those usually designated post-pliocene (Pleisto- 
 
 1 Proc. Royal Soc, vol. x. p. 50. 
 
 '^ This only refers to the large worked haches. On his first visit to 
 Menchecourt, the day after his arrival at Abbeville, he was fortunate 
 enough to obtain, in one excavation he had made to a depth of about 
 20 feet beneath the surface, several fine flint flakes with large bulbs 
 of percussion, in a bed with abundant remains of the mammoth and 
 other extinct mammalia. 
 
 3 Subsequently, Mr Prestwich was summoned by a telegram from Paris, 
 to which he responded by going to St Acheul and finding an implement 
 in situ. 
 
86 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 cene), and notices their agreement with many beds of that age 
 in England. 
 
 Finally, Mr Prestwich stated that he 
 
 purposely abstains for the present from all theoretical con- 
 siderations, confining himself to the corroboration of the 
 facts — 
 
 1. That the flint-implements are the work of man. 
 
 2. That they were found in undisturbed ground. 
 
 3. That they are associated with the remains of extinct 
 Mammalia. 
 
 4. That the period was a late geological one, and anterior 
 to the surface assuming its present outline, so far as some of 
 its minor features are concerned. 
 
 He does not, however, consider that the facts, as they at 
 present stand, of necessity carry back Man in past time more 
 than they bring forward the great extinct Mammals towards 
 our own time, the evidence having reference only to relative 
 and not to absolute time ; and he is of opinion that many of the 
 later geological changes may have been sudden, or of shorter 
 duration than generally considered. In fact, from the evidence 
 here exhibited, and from all that he knows regarding drift 
 phenomena generally, the author sees no reason against the 
 conclusion that this period of Man and the extinct Mammalia 
 — supposing their cotemporaneity to be proved — was brought 
 to a sudden end by a temporary inundation of the land : on the 
 contrary, he sees much to support such a view on purely 
 geological considerations. 
 
 The effect produced by this paper was very great. 
 Before writing it, Mr Prestwich had been joined by Mr 
 (now Sir John) Evans, and together they had examined 
 the flints and gravels of Amiens and Abbeville. Both 
 being experts in different departments — one from his 
 practical knowledge of geology, especially of the more 
 recent deposits, and the other holding the foremost 
 rank in archaeology — their joint opinion carried great 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES. 87 
 
 weight. Thus when their belief became public, that 
 M. de Perthes had made an important discovery, and 
 that a large proportion of the flint implements in his 
 collection were what he had claimed them to be, men 
 of science on both sides of the Channel cast away their 
 doubts and unbelief, and the Valley of the Somme 
 became at once the shrine for many a scientific pil- 
 grimage. No longer had M. de Perthes occasion to 
 bewail in bitterness of spirit the roughness of the road 
 of science ; his labour of years was recognised, and a 
 sudden revolution efi*ected in his favour. His letters 
 of this date, especially those addressed to Dr Falconer 
 and to Mr Prestwich, are expressive of the most lively 
 satisfaction and gratitude. 
 
 In the same year we read of another visit by the 
 latter to this flint-bearing district, accompanied by 
 Messrs Godwin- Austen, J. W. Flower, and K. W. Mylne, 
 followed by one from Sir Charles Lyell. Then again, 
 in 1860, Mr Prestwich led a party of his personal 
 friends there, including Mr Busk, Captain (Sir Douglas) 
 Galton, and Sir John Lubbock (Lord Avebury). A host 
 of geologists and others followed on the same errand, 
 amongst whose names we note those of Sir Eoderick 
 Murchison, Professors Eamsay, Kupert Jones, Henslow, 
 Rogers, and Mr Henry Christy. That cold November 
 day spent by Hugh Falconer in examining the collec- 
 tion of flints and stones and bones had had far-reaching 
 results. 
 
 Nor did French savants remain longer unconvinced. 
 Mr Prestwich, satisfied by the success of his paper to 
 the Royal Society, addressed a letter to the French 
 Academy of Sciences, urging the significance of M. de 
 Perthes' discoveries. The eff'ect of this communication 
 was that M. Gaudry, a distinguished member of the 
 
88 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 Institute, visited Abbeville and Amiens to examine 
 the implements and the flint-bearing beds. He found 
 several worked flints in situ, and his researches con- 
 firmed M. de Perthes' statements : his report had the 
 effect in Paris that the paper to the Eoyal Society had 
 in England, and a French pilgrimage to the valley of 
 the Somme began, headed by well-known members of 
 the Institute, among whom were MM. de Quatrefages, 
 Lartet, Hebert, and many others. 
 
 Our antiquarian of Abbeville was now a proud and 
 happy man, and if he did see the attacks of one or 
 two adverse critics in England, who stigmatised him as 
 " that amiable fanatic," he heeded them not : he could 
 afford to smile at such criticisms. One cannot resist 
 giving a quotation from a humorous note of Dr Fal- 
 coner's. It is dated about a year after that first visit 
 to Abbeville : — 
 
 London, ith Nov. 1859. 
 My dear Prestwich, — I have a charming letter from M. 
 Boucher de Perthes — full of gratitude to * Perfide Albion ' for 
 helping him to assured immortality, and giving him a lift when 
 his countrymen of the Institute left him in the gutter. He 
 radiates a benignant smile from his lofty pinnacle — on you and 
 me — surprised that the treacherous Leopard should have be- 
 haved so well. 
 
 But although M. de Perthes had thus achieved the 
 ambition of his life, and had been spared to see recog- 
 nised the importance and value of his collection of the 
 works of primitive man, he had again to experience the 
 " stony roughness of the road of science." In his re- 
 markable collection there was a certain admixture of 
 very carefully worked specimens, in the authenticity 
 of which he himself blindly believed, but which his 
 English friends at once pointed out and unhesitatingly 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES. 89 
 
 condemned as spurious. There can be little doubt but 
 that certain of the workmen were dishonest ; and lured 
 on by the awards held out to them for every imple- 
 ment found, they thought to do business on their own 
 account, and secretly started a manufactory of their 
 own. These modern imitators copied the implements 
 with considerable exactness, declaring to our anti- 
 quarian of Abbeville that with their own hands they 
 had dug them out of the gravel. These forgeries were 
 really deceptive in form and make, but experts were 
 not slow to detect the absence of patina or vitreous 
 glaze, that "varnish of antiquity," and the staining 
 which are characteristic of old palaeolithic implements, 
 and which the workmen had not been able to 
 reproduce. 
 
 But the culminating interest in the later years of 
 the life of M. de Perthes was his asserted discovery 
 of a "human jaw" with flint haches in the couche 
 noire of the gravel -pit of Moulin Quignon. The 
 authenticity of this jaw, which he firmly believed to 
 be of the same age as the accepted palaeolithic imple- 
 ments, was generally questioned, in face of his assevera- 
 tion of having extricated it with his own hands on the 
 28th of March 1863. During all these years of excava- 
 tions in the gravels, remains of man himself had been 
 carefully looked for, yet never found, and this was the 
 first occasion on which a human bone had come to 
 light. 
 
 This asserted discovery excited the most lively 
 interest on both sides of the Channel. Dr Falconer 
 at first had been inclined to believe in the remote 
 age of the jaw, but the " deliberate scrutiny " of the 
 materials which he had carried away from Abbeville 
 compelled him to alter his opinion. To quote his 
 
90 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 words : " The French savants, the more they went 
 into the case, were more convinced of the soundness 
 of their conclusions; while their English opponents, 
 the more they weighed the evidence before them, were 
 the more strengthened in their doubts." 
 
 To settle the question definitely, it was agreed that 
 a deputation of English savants should proceed to 
 Paris to confer with representatives of their French 
 brethren. This deputation consisted of Drs Falconer 
 and Carpenter, Messrs Prestwich and Busk, all Fellows 
 of the Koyal Society ; while the French members, who 
 were largely drawn from the ranks of the Institute, 
 were MM. de Quatrefages the eminent naturalist, 
 Desnoyers the geologist, Edouard Lartet the palaeon- 
 tologist, and Delesse, professor of geology, with M. 
 Milne-Edwards the zoologist as their president. Other 
 distinguished naturalists joined in the investigation, as, 
 for example, our old friend M. Gaudry, M. A. Milne- 
 Edwards, and the Abbe Bourgeois. Sir John Evans 
 was prevented by other engagements from joining in 
 at this stage of the inquiry. 
 
 Three meetings of the Commission were held in 
 Paris in May 1863, the proceedings being conducted 
 with as great solemnity as if a human life hung in 
 the balance, and depended on their deliberations. And 
 what a remarkable assemblage ! 
 
 Unable to agree, they adjourned to Abbeville, when 
 the picturesque aspect of the conference had its crown- 
 ing touch. Here the members were reinforced by the 
 presence of M. de Perthes, with that also of several 
 distinguished savants, such as MM. Hebert, de Vibraye, 
 &c., and the sitting was held at the quaint old "T6te 
 de Boeuf " far into the night. At 2 a.m. they separated, 
 to meet once more a few hours later for the summing 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF M. BOUCHER DE PERTHES. 91 
 
 up. The proems verhaux of each meeting had been 
 voluminous and minute, but the evidence was so per- 
 plexing that in the final verdict there was only 
 unanimity on the first clause — namely, "The jaw in 
 question was not fraudulently introduced into the 
 gravel-pit of Moulin Quignon ; it had existed pre- 
 viously in the spot where M. Boucher de Perthes 
 found it on the 28th of March 1863." 
 
 It was a bitter disappointment to M. de Perthes 
 that his English friends, in acknowledging the fact 
 of the human jaw having been truly found as he 
 described, yet refused to admit that it belonged to 
 a remote antiquity. In writing subsequently to Fal- 
 coner and to Prestwich, he pleaded for his jaw in 
 words that were pathetic. He felt that the halo of 
 his success was dimmed, and never quite recovered 
 from his keen disappointment. Yet he had support 
 among the members of the Commission, who were his 
 distinguished countrymen, and might well have been 
 content to leave the age of this famous human jaw 
 as it rested in the minds of his English friends — in 
 doubt. His early researches had thrown a flood of 
 light upon a subject which had been shunned, so beset 
 was it with difficulties : in obtaining the public recog- 
 nition of his flint haches as the tools and weapons of 
 primitive man, he had achieved a great work. 
 
 Could he have been but spared to witness the hold 
 that his discoveries eventually obtained over the public 
 mind ! Could he only have foreseen the growth of 
 the subject in seven-and-thirty years, how great would 
 have been his triumph ! His indomitable energy and 
 far-seeing sagacity had given the first impetus to a 
 subject which has grown into a new science, and 
 geologists all over the world have set themselves to 
 
92 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 seek (and have found) those rudely wrought weapons 
 and tools of flint and stone, fashioned by savage man 
 before the use of metals was known. And the inquiry, 
 once started, has not been limited to the search in the 
 Valley Drifts, of which the flint implements have 
 become historical. The horizon has widened ; evidence 
 is forthcoming which shows that flint implements of a 
 still ruder type are found in a Drift on the summit of 
 hills, and to which a much older date has been assigned 
 than to the Valley Drifts.^ This new field of research 
 is now in course of active exploration, and the dis- 
 coveries in it already shadow forth results that are 
 remarkable, inasmuch as they point to the still greater 
 antiquity of the human race. 
 
 1 See papers by Prestwich, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xlvii. p. 126, 
 and Journ. Anthropol. Inst., vol. xxi. p. 246. 
 
EVENINGS WITH MADAME MOHL : 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF A PARIS SALON. 
 
 On turning over the leaves of an old note-book which 
 has been unopened for years, we come upon the name 
 of Madame Mohl. To her we were indebted for great 
 kindness, and the mere mention of her name presents 
 vividly to one's mind that remarkable personality — 
 that quaint, gifted little woman, who for so many years 
 presided over the brilliant gatherings at 120 Eue du 
 Bac. Although our recollections of one who filled so 
 prominent a position in Paris society are very frag- 
 mentary, they may not be unacceptable to those who 
 never enjoyed the privilege of her friendship. And to 
 her friends — and they were many — perhaps we may 
 be able to recall some trait of our warm-hearted 
 countrywoman, who was so highly original, so full of 
 kindness, and who exercised a magnetic attraction for 
 all who came in contact with her. 
 
 The name also revives the memory of M. Jules Mohl, 
 "the husband of Madame Mohl," as one who was on 
 brotherly terms sometimes jokingly addressed him, and 
 who can never be forgotten by those who had the hon- 
 our of calling him friend. Sainte-Beuve's description of 
 him was so true : "A man who was the very embodi- 
 ment of learning and of inquiry ; the oriental savant 
 — more than a savant, a sage — with a mind clear, loyal, 
 
94 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 and vast ; a German mind passed through an English 
 filter — a cloudless, unruffled mirror, open and limpid ; 
 of pure and frank morality; early disenchanted with 
 all things ; with a grain of irony devoid of all bitterness, 
 the laugh of a child under a bald head, a Goethe-like 
 intelligence, but free from all prejudice." German by 
 birth, and one of a band of brothers, all of whom 
 rose to distinction, the great-hearted, thoughtful stu- 
 dent was a pillar of strength to his more mercurial wife. 
 Strange that the unpretending home of two foreigners 
 on a third floor in a Paris thoroughfare should have 
 been so brilliant a centre for all that was intellectuaL 
 Men who were foremost in science, in literature, and 
 in political life, were habitues of Madame Mohl's salon, 
 where they came in contact with men and women who 
 had risen to fame as dramatists or artists. Bank and 
 fortune were themselves in her estimation of no account ; 
 only individual merit or personal distinction gave the 
 entree to her drawing-room, with the exception that to 
 her own and her husband's old friends, whether distin- 
 guished or not, warm welcome was always accorded. 
 
 In the one work we have from Madame Mohl's pen 
 — ' Madame Eecamier, with a Sketch of the History of 
 Society in France ' — the words in which she describes 
 the salon of Madame de Eambouillet exactly apply to 
 her own : " She did not inquire into the pedigree of 
 those whose society she preferred : wit and intellect 
 ensured a perfect welcome. The most illustrious per- 
 sons in every line met in her rooms, and each gained by 
 contact with the others." Again: ''She had that in- 
 dependence of mind that led her to prefer merit and 
 intellect to all other distinctions, added to great dis- 
 crimination in finding them out." 
 
 Mary Clarke was a child of three when taken with her 
 
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 fr 
 
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 ''.LU^//LCy 
 
 c-^^ 
 
 
EVENINGS WITH MADAME MOHL. 95 
 
 elder sister by their widowed mother to France. With 
 the exception of occasional visits to England, to Italy, 
 and to Germany, her life was spent in France, and the 
 purity of her French was wont to excite the admiration 
 of those who spoke it as their mother tongue, and who 
 were the best judges. She handled the language as she 
 did everything else, in her own quaint original way. 
 With her mother she lived in the world of letters, so 
 that the salon, after her marriage with Mr Mohl, was 
 only a continuation on an extended scale of the social 
 evenings at the Abbaye-aux-Bois, where they lived for 
 several years. It was there that Chateaubriand, 
 Fauriel, and Ampere frequented their drawing-room, 
 as also later when mother and daughter moved to the 
 Eue du Bac, Madame Eecamier being a constant guest. 
 The vivacity of "Za jeune Anglaisey' as Mary Clarke 
 was usually termed long after that she could lay no 
 claim to youth, delighted them all. Her biographer 
 remarks : " Chateaubriand said of her, ' La jeune An- 
 glaise is like none else in the world.' " Her sayings 
 were so audacious, so trenchant, and so witty. Where 
 she entered dulness and ennui fled. Her father's family 
 was said to be of Irish extraction ; her mother's was 
 Scottish ; and she might have been defined as a mix- 
 ture of Scottish sagacity with a superabundance of Irish 
 vivacity. 
 
 My first introduction to Madame Mohl was early in 
 November 1858, when on the way to Sicily with my 
 uncle, Dr Hugh Falconer, the palaeontologist. We 
 stayed several days in Paris in order to pick up an 
 Italian maid whom Madame Mohl had taken infinite 
 trouble to find for us. M. Jules Mohl, his friend, was 
 then absent from Paris, but Madame received us with 
 the greatest kindness. 
 
96 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 Calling on her directly after breakfast, we were 
 shown into the outer drawing-room that communicated 
 with the inner and larger by a glass door, which, on 
 our names being announced, was instantly thrown open, 
 and a brisk little lady tripped forward to welcome us. 
 With the sprightliness and quick movements of a young 
 girl, she must then have been nearly threescore and 
 ten. I had heard so much about her that various 
 pictures had been formed in my mind — all very differ- 
 ent from the little lady before us. She was attired, 
 not in dressing-gown and curl-papers, as when occasion- 
 ally at other times we were received by her, but in a 
 dress just clear of the ground, of bronze-coloured silk, 
 with a tiny pattern made after a fashion of her own, a 
 little open at the throat. Her gown was simple and 
 suitable, but her head-dress took us both aback, and we 
 could not refrain from smiling at it, and the eagerness 
 of her welcome. 
 
 " Well, you've come at last. I began to think that 
 you would never come ! " was the exclamation ; and 
 while she expressed regret at " Mr Mohl's " absence, we 
 had time to note the small features, the saucy upturned 
 nose, and the round bright eyes so suggestive of keen 
 sagacity. But the eyes looked through a dishevelled 
 maze of little curls, which were in layers one above 
 another, and completely covered her forehead. She 
 reminded me (as I once sent word to her biographer. 
 Miss O'Meara, who was desirous of collecting materials 
 for the Memoirs) of a little Skye terrier that had been 
 out in a gale of wind. 
 
 Never shall I forget her childlike cry of delight when, 
 after my uncle had told her of our detention at Abbe- 
 ville so as to see M. Boucher de Perthes' collection of 
 palseolithic flint implements (a day memorable in their 
 
EVENINGS WITH MADAME MOHL. 97 
 
 history, since before that time their being of human 
 workmanship had been discredited in France and in 
 England), she made some observation upon his travel- 
 ling suit. The rough outfit had been made specially for 
 geological work, and was certainly out of the com- 
 mon. The coat contained so many pockets, outside 
 and inside, as to be embarrassing and bewildering to 
 the wearer ! 
 
 " Why, you are made of pockets ! " she exclaimed, 
 when he had unbuttoned his coat and displayed the 
 interior casing. She was evidently charmed with the 
 coat and its wearer, and insisted on our going to dine 
 with her on the following Friday ; but having no suit- 
 able dress, I begged to be excused. 
 
 " I had to take as little luggage as possible, and have 
 no evening-dress, Madame Mohl. I have only a high 
 black dress, and could not appear in that. I know you 
 will kindly excuse me." 
 
 " You will do very well in that, my dear. I take no 
 refusal. And stay, I'll tell you what I'll do. I shall 
 write and tell the friends I invite not to dress." 
 
 So it was agreed, and I was inconsiderate enough to 
 allow her to take this trouble. Also, I was to go to 
 the Kue du Bac next morning but one, so as to meet 
 the Italian maid. 
 
 That second interview was very funny and also satis- 
 factory, as it led to Carolina's immediate engagement ; 
 but it was not half so droll as a visit I made to Madame 
 Mohl a few days later, when Carolina was with me. 
 We found her in the ante-room, expressing her opinion 
 of some badly done work to a Paris working uphol- 
 sterer. The man stood like a statue and neither 
 flinched nor winked, while the irate little lady shook 
 her clenched fist close to his nose ! I was astounded, 
 
 G 
 
98 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 and with difficulty kept my countenance. But, alas ! 
 the scene was too much for Carolina, who tried to 
 screen herself behind me. A half-suppressed titter 
 betrayed her, and Madame Mohl looking round, angrily 
 caught sight of the girl in vain striving to stifle her 
 laughter. Much time and trouble had been expended 
 in finding a family who would undertake to leave 
 the orphan Carolina in Eome, her birthplace, and I 
 fear that Madame Mohl did not forgive this mirthful 
 explosion. 
 
 The dinner-party preceding her Friday evening re- 
 ception was limited to seven, Lady Augusta Bruce 
 (afterwards the wife of Dean Stanley) being prevented 
 by the illness of her mother. An intimate friend of 
 Mr Mohl's took his place ; Lady William Eussell and 
 her two sons, Mr Odo Eussell (afterwards Lord Ampt- 
 hill) and his brother, then Mr Arthur Eussell, made 
 up the number. We sat at a round table, the con- 
 versation, in deference to the Paris savant, being in 
 French. I was placed between the brothers Eussell, 
 and blundered on in very Scottish French, until with 
 a quiet smile Mr Odo Eussell suggested, " Had we not 
 better speak in English ? " 
 
 The dinner was served a la Russe, a fashion which 
 was at that date by no means usual in England ; and 
 the dishes, which were few in number, were the best 
 of their kind, such as only a French chef could send to 
 table. It was a lively little party, and our hostess in- 
 dulged in occasional witty and merry sallies. Lady 
 William Eussell had great conversational powers, and 
 we were charmed with her. The ease with which she 
 expressed herself in French, and her clear enunciation, 
 were admirable. She was quite what Lord Houghton de- 
 scribed her, a ** grande dame to the tips of her fingers." 
 
EVENINGS WITH MADAME MOHL. 99 
 
 Across these four-and-thirty years even the little items 
 of her dress come to one's remembrance — the dark 
 stone-coloured silk, the cape of fine old lace on her 
 shoulders, and the flashing of gems on her fingers. 
 
 One could not but see how our sprightly hostess 
 effaced herself, and, like a skilful pilot, led the con- 
 versation into channels which were familiar to her 
 guests, and where they unconsciously displayed their 
 best powers. In her work on Madame Recamier we 
 again come on an observation which exactly defines 
 the writer : — 
 
 If she knew an anecdote db propos of something, she would 
 call on any one else who knew it also to relate it, though no 
 one related it better than herself. No one ever understood 
 more thoroughly how to show off others to the best advantage : 
 if she was able to fathom their minds, she would always en- 
 deavour to draw up what was valuable. This was one of her 
 great charms ; and as the spirits of the speaker were raised by 
 his success, he became really more animated, and his ideas and 
 words flowed on more rapidly. 
 
 When we adjourned to the inner drawing-room, the 
 evening guests were beginning to arrive. The two 
 rooms were spacious but not lofty, plainly yet 
 most comfortably furnished with wall-divans, covered, 
 as were the easiest of easy-chairs, which were of all 
 sizes, with crimson woollen damask, the window- 
 hangings being of the same material. There were 
 few ornaments, little gilding, and no glare. A subdued 
 light was thrown from green-shaded lamps in corners 
 on account of "Mr Mohl's " eyes, and this softened 
 light added to the pervading atmosphere of repose. 
 
 Amongst the first arrivals were Thackeray and his 
 two young daughters, the latter in pretty light-blue 
 dresses. As they were being announced, Madame Mohl 
 
100 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 called out from the other end of the drawing-room, 
 "My dears, didn't I tell you that you were not to 
 dress ! " 
 
 Thackeray was very animated, and talked as perhaps 
 only Thackeray could talk. Like others, he came 
 under the spell of Lady William Kussell's fascination, 
 and was at once monopolised by her. Gradually, how- 
 ever, a group gathered round them, and soon the 
 author of ' Vanity Fair ' found himself surrounded and 
 discoursing to an admiring little audience. 
 
 Madame Mohl's salon that evening was as usual 
 crowded, many of the guests bearing names familiar to 
 us from hearsay. Among other celebrities we noted 
 Elie de Beaumont, the geologist and Perpetual Sec- 
 retary of the Institute ; M. Milne - Edwards, the 
 naturalist; M. de Quatrefages, the anthropologist; M. 
 de St Hilaire, and a host of members of the Institute. 
 There was no cumbersome preparation for the guests ; 
 the only refreshments were tea and cake on a table 
 in a corner of the inner drawing-room, tea being 
 poured out by the hostess herself. How often, in the 
 hum and babel of talk, that high voice rang out shrilly 
 and merrily, as she apostrophised some of her guests, 
 tickling the ears of all who wanted to hear more and 
 lose nothing ! Our old note-book records : "No music, 
 no cards, no games in the salon, only conversation ; 
 but the ease and grace of French manners struck us 
 particularly." 
 
 We had to leave Paris before the return of M. 
 Jules Mohl, his wife, with characteristic kindness, load- 
 ing us, unsolicited, with letters of introduction to her 
 friends in Italy. It was Madame Mohl's habit to pay 
 an annual visit to her English friends, and, late in the 
 summer of 1859, M. Mohl followed his wife to England. 
 
EVENINGS WITH MADAME MOHL. 101 
 
 In going through some old letters I find one addressed 
 to his friend. 
 
 Paris, 120 Rue du Bac, 26th July 1859. 
 
 My dear Falconer, — I hope to be in London on the 8 th 
 of August, or a few days later. If I cannot finish some things 
 in the time I calculate, will you be so kind as to solicit my 
 admission to the Athenieum from that time for a month, if it 
 can be done, and the number of foreigners who can be admitted 
 allows of it ? You know what a pleasure it is to me to enjoy 
 the hospitality of the Club. 
 
 I have read a great deal since of your cave, your l?one knives, 
 and all these old-world remains, and am anxious to hear from 
 you the sequel of the story. I talked to Elie de Beaumont 
 about it, who is most obdurately incredulous. 
 
 But we will talk of this and many other matters in London. 
 — Yours very sincerely, J. Mohl. 
 
 The attachment that had long existed between Jules 
 Mohl and Hugh Falconer was fostered by the frequent 
 autumnal visits of the former to London ; so at a season 
 when society was scarce, and the visiting world " out of 
 town," the two friends saw much of each other at the 
 Athenaeum Club, where on consecutive days they dined 
 and spent their evenings together. With his great 
 erudition, Jules Mohl had the singleness and simplicity 
 of a child, and a sense of humour that made his com- 
 panionship delightful. To my uncle he more than once 
 described the circumstances of his engagement to Miss 
 Mary Clarke, and they were inconceivably comical. 
 During Mrs Clarke's life he had been for some twenty 
 years a daily visitor, and spent nearly every evening 
 with mother and daughter for that daughter s sake ; 
 yet on the death of the former it did not occur to our 
 philosopher that a certain step was necessary to ensure 
 to him a continuance of that daily companionship which 
 was essential to his happiness. He was obtuse, and it 
 
102 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 fell to the lady, wlio was ten years his senior, she being 
 fifty-seven and he forty-seven, to point out that if they 
 were to continue to spend their evenings together, the 
 convenances must be observed. His simple rejoinder 
 was staggering, *' Quoifairef Was there ever a finer 
 comedy ! The celebration of their marriage was at the 
 time kept a profound secret, and only the two witnesses 
 were present — Jules Mohl inviting a friend on the 
 previous evening to come to him next day and act as 
 temoin. f ^e friend was punctual, but went under the 
 impression that he was to serve as witness at a duel ! 
 We read that " the ceremony was performed in the 
 presence of the temoins, and the newly married couple 
 parted at the church door, and returned to their re- 
 spective homes. Two days later they met again at a 
 restaurant near the railway station, dined there with 
 their witnesses, and set ofi* on a wedding tour to 
 Switzerland." 
 
 After an interval of several years, and in the spring 
 of 1867, I again saw Madame Mohl. Being then with 
 my sister for several weeks in Paris, we received the 
 old afiectionate welcome, and went frequently to her 
 Friday receptions. It was then for the first time that 
 we made acquaintance with '*the husband of Madame 
 Mohl," and our great pleasure was to have a seat by his 
 side during the evenings, which he made most interest- 
 ing by pointing out the celebrities, and telling us the 
 names of the guests. He always joined us sisters, and 
 kept by us during the evening, for the dear sake, we 
 believe, of his friend, who, alas ! was no more with us, 
 and from whom he was not to be very long separated. 
 
 On one Friday the salon was unusually crowded. 
 Ladies in full toilet edged into a company where there 
 was little space for display, and, after showing them- 
 
EVENINGS WITH MADAME MOHL. 163 
 
 selves, made room for others, and withdrew to later 
 parties, where fashions and dress would be more appre- 
 ciated. But there was always a happy mixture of dress 
 and undress at Madame Mohl's. On that particular 
 evening we happened to be near enough to Lord 
 Houghton to hear him say on entering that he had only 
 arrived an hour before from England, and the remem- 
 brance of this trifling circumstance was curiously verified 
 the other day, when in reading Lord Houghton's * Life ' 
 we came upon the following passage under the date 1867 : 
 " I left London two inches deep in snow, and found 
 here the warmth of spring. The change was quite 
 comical. I went to Madame Mohl's in the evening, and 
 found myself talking to Renan, &c., as if I had been in 
 Paris a month. Comme la vie est facile id ! " 
 
 Kenan's appearance was striking. It may be pre- 
 judice, but I was always unpleasantly impressed by 
 him. He was stout, broad, and short-necked ; his large 
 projecting eyes were placed far apart, and with the 
 wide mouth were the reverse of attractive. Yet his 
 face was undoubtedly massive and expressive of power, 
 and we were often assured that the charm of his speech 
 at once dispelled the impression made by his unpre- 
 possessing appearance. Madame de Witt, the daughter 
 of Guizot, was a frequent guest, as were the Tour- 
 guenietfs, &c. ; but on the evening in question the 
 individual who interested us most after Renan was the 
 young widowed Duchess Colonna, who had achieved 
 great success as a sculptress. In a low dress of black 
 velvet, which threw her snowy shoulders into strong 
 contrast, her swan-like neck without any ornament, and 
 her profusion of fair hair in masses of short curls, she 
 was the ideal of elegance. What a little court she held, 
 and how graceful were her movements ! 
 
104 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 Political opinions were so openly expressed and so 
 adverse to the Imperial regime at Madame Mohl's, that 
 I often wondered that the Government did not interfere 
 and order the doors of the salon to be closed. She 
 carried her dislike to the Emperor Louis Napoleon, 
 whom she always spoke of as " Celui-ci,'' to such a 
 pitch, that she persisted when travelling to use her old 
 Louis Philippe passport under her maiden name of 
 Mary Clarke. On this head I cannot resist quoting 
 an anecdote recorded in her * Life ' : — 
 
 One Friday evening, at the Rue du Bac, M. Guizot came in, 
 and related the following story that he had just heard : — 
 
 " A relation of the Duchess de la R had married one of 
 
 those * suppots de Satan ' (her term for any one in Imperial em- 
 ploy), and had further degraded herself by living under the 
 roof with Celui-ci. The unhappy lady had become from that 
 time forth .naturally as one dead to her kith and kin in the 
 noble faubourg ; but she was now ill, dying it was believed, and 
 it was a fit occasion for the exercise of mercy. The family there- 
 fore resolved to send her to judgment absolved, at least by the 
 Faubourg St Germain. The Duchess herself generously vol- 
 unteered to take this message of pardon to her dying relative. 
 She ordered her carriage, and said to the footman, *Aux 
 Tuileries ! ' The man stared, but carried the order to the coach- 
 man ; whereupon that venerable functionary, who had driven 
 
 three generations of the de la R s, got down from his seat, 
 
 and presenting himself at the carriage-window, said, ' Madame 
 la Duchesse, I cannot have the honour of conducting your 
 grace to the Tuileries ; my horses do not know the way there.' " 
 
 Madame Mohl clapped her hands in delight, exclaiming, 
 " And the Duchess kissed the old coachman ? " 
 
 " No," said M. Guizot ; " but she got out of her carriage and 
 sent for a cab." 
 
 Madame Mohl lived on this story for a week, and so did her 
 friends. 
 
 More than once her opinion is recorded of conversa- 
 tion as it is generally practised in England : — 
 
EVENINGS WITH MADAME MOHL. 105 
 
 We are scarcely aware in England how seldom we practise 
 that form of talk which alone can be called conversation, in 
 which what we really think is brought out, and which flows 
 the quicker from the pleasure of seeing it excite thoughts in 
 others — conversation to which both reason and fancy pay their 
 tribute. . . . Conversation is the mingling of mind with mind, 
 and is the most complete exercise of the social faculty ; but the 
 general barter of commonplaces we choose to call conversation 
 is as far removed from its reality as the signs of Caspar Hauser 
 were from the talking of ordinary men. 
 
 Her definition of de V esprit was that *4t does not 
 mean great wit, it is rather that quick perception which 
 seizes the ideas of others and returns change for them." 
 
 As a specimen of Madame Mohl's style in English, 
 which was said not to equal her writing in French, we 
 give one more quotation from ' Madame Eecamier, and 
 the History of Society in France.' In the latter part 
 of this work she traces the influence of the old ballads 
 and Proven9al traditions on chivalry in the eleventh 
 century : — 
 
 That these stories originated in real facts belonging to these 
 localities which the border ballads first commemorated, and by 
 degrees altered, can scarcely be doubted. . . . We find to this 
 day the Breche de Eoland made by the sword Durandal when 
 the hero was dying ; the story was recorded in one of the old 
 ballads, and tliis trace remains of it. It is equally impossible 
 to doubt, from the quantity of Provencal romances founded on 
 Charlemagne's passage into Spain, that these traditions de- 
 lighted both poets and people long before chivalry was thought 
 of ; but when the Provencal poets and chivalry did appear, this 
 became their heroic age; they looked back upon it as the 
 Greeks must have looked upon the days of Orpheus and 
 Theseus. Nor was their reverence for it such a mere matter 
 of fancy as might at first sight appear ; for out of these mys- 
 terious thickets of history a spirit came forth just as spon- 
 taneous and fresh as a spring sparkling out of the ground in 
 some deep glen, and like the same little rill after murmuring 
 
106 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 a long time in dark solitary woods, it emerged into sight, be- 
 came broader and deeper, and poured down like a river, bring- 
 ing to us the majestic civilisation that overspread the country. 
 How many curious and active spirits have endeavoured to trace 
 a river to its source ! but can any stream, however beneficent, 
 be compared to the poetry which was the source of our modern 
 civilisation, whose infancy was concealed in these unknown 
 regions of history ? It cannot relate its own birth, nor how it 
 was nourished ; but when this young muse, all charming with 
 unconsciousness, began to speak, it was in a new tongue, so 
 soft, so full of tenderness and grace, and the sentiments she 
 expressed in this musical Provencal were so refined and en- 
 chanting, that all around were enthralled. 
 
 As Miss Mary Clarke, she was the literary executor 
 of M. Fauriel, the author of the * Histoire de la Poesie 
 Provengale/ &c. ; and with fidelity and care she ful- 
 filled the trust — Jules Mohl, who was also Fauriel's 
 friend, generously aiding her in what was a labour of 
 love. 
 
 Our last interview with her was early in 1870, when, 
 being in Paris for a day or two with my husband on 
 our way to Italy, we went to the Eue du Bac and made 
 an early call. Madame Mohl received us in the tradi- 
 tional dressing-gown and curl-papers, the latter of very 
 varied and brilliant hues, being red, green, and blue 
 circulars utilised for this purpose. I imagined that 
 she would make a little apology to my husband for 
 appearing in this costume, as he was a complete 
 stranger to her ; but she made no allusion to this, and 
 was quite unconscious of there being anything remark- 
 .able in her appearance, she getting as usual to the ker- 
 nel of the subjects discussed. Her attractive niece, 
 Miss Mohl, who afterwards became Madame Helmholtz, 
 was with her, busily engaged with her painting. The 
 use of the circulars as curl-papers was one of the small 
 
EVENINGS WITH MADAME MOHL. 107 
 
 economies which amused her friends, who knew of her 
 frequent deeds of generosity and benevolence. For 
 example, we read of Madame Mohl running about Paris 
 one morning to induce buyers to go to the forced sale 
 of a poor old friend's furniture, she attending herself 
 and expending nearly 2000 francs in buying out what 
 would be most useful, and presenting the same to the 
 poor widow. 
 
 Would that we had preserved the quaint little notes 
 that at long intervals were received from her ! One 
 only I can find — undated as usual — written from the 
 Deanery of Westminster in June 1871. It was in 
 reply to an invitation. She was unable to accept it 
 definitely, and said: "If not, I shall certainly go some 
 morning to see you." But we were on the point of 
 leaving London, and saw her face no more. 
 
 More touching than her own deathbed, as recorded 
 by the biographer, was that of Jules Mohl, whose death 
 took place several years before that of his wife. When 
 power of speech was lost to the dying man, and while 
 struggling for breath, his hand was put out to stroke 
 her poor face — a mute expression of consciousness that 
 she was by his side. 
 
 To her his death was desolation. Faithful friends 
 rallied round her and kept by her to the last, but the 
 aged woman was often found by them in floods of tears, 
 and her only pleasure was in talking of *'Mr Mohl," 
 and in bringing out editions of his translations from 
 Persian and Chinese and other works. Her own sum- 
 mons came when she had attained the age of ninety- 
 two. 
 
 She used her gifts in brightening the lives of others, 
 and the memory of Mary Mohl will be cherished in 
 many hearts — as it is in ours. 
 
OUK WHITE DEAL BOX, AND THE 
 TEOUBLE IT GAVE; 
 
 OR, HOW THE CUSTOM-HOUSE AT NAPLES DEALT WITH 
 SOME CASTS OF FOSSIL ANIMALS. 
 
 Nearly thirty years have passed since before daybreak 
 on a cold morning in December our steamboat from 
 Genoa entered the Bay of Naples. I was roused by 
 the stewardess, who brought me a message to say that 
 Vesuvius was in sight, and I hurried on deck for my 
 first glimpse of that strange and wonderful display — 
 an active volcano. No gleam of dawn disclosed to us 
 the features of the city and its unrivalled bay, but in 
 the intense darkness two red-hot fissures, scoring the 
 sides of the mountain, glowed with weird and wonder- 
 ful effect, telling us in language more forcible than 
 words of the furnaces that burned beneathj and remind- 
 ing us that somehow we were on the near confines of 
 the unknown underground world. The only coast-line 
 visible was that defined by the bright bead-like line of 
 Naples lights, contrasting oddly in their neat order and 
 puny dimensions with the resistless power so unpleas- 
 antly near to them. No one, however, cared to study 
 the line of harbour lights ; all eyes were turned to 
 Vesuvius, and while we watched for the dawn it stole 
 upon us unawares, and we knew of the approach of day 
 by the dark form of the mountain looming before us 
 in the dim twilight, its crater cone standing high above 
 
OUR WHITE DEAL BOX. 109 
 
 those red-hot rents in its sides. It was a scene never 
 to be forgotten. 
 
 It may be different now, but landing from a vessel 
 in the Bay of Naples thirty years ago [1858] was an 
 uncomfortable experience. A fleet of small boats sur- 
 rounded us, and we at once made acquaintance with that 
 strong element in the popular life of Naples — noise. It 
 was positively deafening : each boatman shouted louder 
 than his neighbour for possession of the helpless passen- 
 gers. A fight seemed imminent, yet there was no real 
 anger, it was all noise, and only their ordinary mode 
 of transacting business. By nine o'clock we passengers 
 had been all peaceably apportioned and were landed at 
 the custom-house, having been first rowed to the police- 
 ofl&ce in order to have our passports examined. 
 
 Our travelling party consisted of my uncle, a distin- 
 guished geologist (who had undertaken this journey to 
 the south of Europe for the object of examining certain 
 fossil animal remains) ; I, his niece, who acted as secre- 
 tary ; and Carolina Belloni, an Italian maid whom 
 Madame Mohl had engaged and had ready for us as 
 we passed through Paris. Our personal luggage made 
 only a small boat's load, as we had insisted on Caro- 
 lina's capacious chest (which, by the way, held all her 
 worldly property) being warehoused at Genoa, and had 
 replaced it by a box of modest dimensions. But the 
 large item of our baggage, and the one destined to give 
 us trouble, was a square deal case with the word 
 " Fragile " painted thereon in very legible letters. We 
 had nothing contraband, and a few francs speedily 
 cleared our own effects as well as the box of books ; 
 but when it came to the question of the white deal 
 box, the custom-house clerks, although assured that it 
 contained no merchandise, declared in a body, and all 
 
110 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 speaking at once, that it could not be surrendered. 
 The package was mysterious, and no silver key was 
 found capable of opening a way out of the customs for 
 it. Not even a frank statement of its contents was of 
 any avail — it made matters worse. Casts of the skulls 
 of extinct animals were out of the common and beyond 
 their comprehension, and we had reason to believe that 
 they suspected us of introducing into Naples something 
 of the nature of dangerous explosives. 
 
 The case contained only plaster casts of the head and 
 bones of a rhinoceros, the gift of Professor Jourdan of 
 Lyons to my uncle, who was taking them to Palermo 
 for comparison with a brother rhinoceros skull in the 
 museum there. The pitch of excitement roused by our 
 enumeration of the specimens would have amused us 
 greatly at any other time — it was comical to a degree ; 
 but time pressed, and it was very tantalising. Our 
 Koman maid was aghast, and as for us too stolid Scots 
 from the far North, it took away our breath. The 
 more we urged, the more resolute the custom-house 
 officers became, and it ended in our having to leave 
 the case in their custody. 
 
 Next day being Christmas, and observed as a high 
 holiday, we of course took no steps for the rescue of 
 the case. And now comes the recollection of that 
 Christmas morn, ushered in, as it was in true Neapoli- 
 tan fashion, by the firing of guns in quick succession, 
 by bursts of joyous music, and by the lively songs sung 
 under our windows to the accompaniment of guitar or 
 castanets. How perfectly southern it all felt ! 
 
 Christmas Day over, we lost no time in seeking the 
 advice of the British consul. He urged, nay, implored, 
 us to do nothing, and to make no attempt for the re- 
 covery of the case ; counselling us only to claim it on the 
 
OUR WHITE DEAL BOX. Ill 
 
 day of our sailing for Sicily, saying that if we took any 
 action we might get into serious trouble. He further 
 explained that it was even undesirable for him to move 
 in the matter, as the Neapolitan Government had been 
 alarmed, and with good reason, by several disquieting 
 occurrences. He impressed on us that the country, 
 politically, was in an anxious state ; and, though he did 
 not say so in words, it was evident (as events soon 
 afterwards proved) that the Kingdom of the Two 
 Sicilies was on the very verge of a revolution. Fer- 
 dinand n., notorious as " King Bomba," was still upon 
 the throne. He now lay upon his deathbed, and his 
 reign was within a few weeks of its close. But the fate 
 of the prisoners of St Elmo, and of those still more 
 hapless ones immured for life in the piomhi, the under- 
 ground leaden dungeons of Trapani — some on ground- 
 less suspicion — had stirred men's hearts to their depths, 
 and underneath all the gaiety and music and noise of 
 Naples there was a seething undercurrent which was 
 soon to find vent. Before long the dynasty of King 
 Bomba was to be relegated to the region of history. 
 
 Without a doubt our consul had given us the best 
 advice, but my uncle was not satisfied. The specimens 
 in the case were of more value to him than all our 
 travelling gear put together ; they had already caused 
 delay — to wit, at Lyons, where we had waited while the 
 casts were taken. And now our geologist, unprepared 
 for snow and bitter winds at Naples, fell ill. While 
 sick and ill he could think of nothing but his forfeited 
 specimens, and fretted to that degree about their sup- 
 posed loss, that I was impelled to do my utmost, and 
 attempt their extrication from the custom-house. 
 
 My first two journeys there, with Carolina as spokes- 
 woman, were productive in promise, but barren in 
 
112 JOURNEYS m FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 results. The employees in it were said to be men of 
 family and favourites of King Bomba, the office being 
 a lucrative one. We left it on each occasion on the 
 understanding that the case would be delivered to its 
 owner next day by a commissionaire at the hotel. But 
 as several days passed and no case appeared, it was 
 necessary for the invalid's peace of mind that one more 
 attempt should be made. 
 
 In the mean time our little party had been reinforced 
 
 by the addition of my uncle's old friend Mr G 1 ; 
 
 so with him as escort, and taking Carolina as spokes- 
 woman, I again at the office of the custom-house made 
 application for the delivery of the case. It was the 
 same office where it had been originally seized, and 
 where, on my previous visits, I had been shown a huge 
 book, in which a detailed description had been inserted 
 — a ceremony here again repeated. The officials who 
 crowded round us all spoke at once, so that each voice 
 in its vehemence drowned its neighbour's, and we under- 
 stood not one word. I knew little French and less 
 Italian, while our friend spoke neither. 
 
 At length, seeing our perplexity, one of the clerks 
 signed to us to follow him to the warehouse, where we 
 found it difficult to thread our way through the closely 
 piled barrels and casks. For me it was especially diffi- 
 cult. It was in the days of crinoline, and Carolina had 
 insisted on my being clothed in a garment which she 
 had bunched out in a marvellous manner. We, how- 
 ever, pushed through to the farther end of this, the 
 large magazine, where there was a circular glass count- 
 ing-house, lined with desks, behind which sat the upper 
 officials of the customs. Near to it was a raised seat, 
 like a precentor s desk, occupied by a grey-haired vet- 
 eran, who was apparently posted there to overlook the 
 
OUR WHITE DEAL BOX. 113 
 
 clerks in the glass counting-house. He was politeness 
 itself, and insisted on dismounting, so that I might 
 take his place. My sensations on being perched up 
 before his desk I cannot describe. A lady in the ware- 
 house of the customs was an unwonted sight, and the 
 clerks of the glass room let their work stand still, and 
 did not scruple to rise in a body and stand and stare 
 steadily at the solitary young Scotchwoman. At the 
 request of the veteran, and to keep me in countenance, 
 our friend climbed up beside me, when, in spite of the 
 opera- glasses directed at us, I was able to join him in 
 a hearty laugh at our strange elevation. 
 
 Meanwhile a young red-haired clerk, who seemed 
 speechless and frantic with excitement, flew away to 
 one of the offices for a document relating to or descrip- 
 tive of our case which stood, I could see, not far from 
 the elevated desk. There were several deal cases not 
 unlike it, but I singled it out at a distance, although 
 the familiar handwriting of the label was upside down. 
 And now followed the trying hour. We grew fidgety, 
 for time passed, though the clerks had not become 
 tired of staring, and no document was forthcoming. 
 Carolina, disapproving strongly of the whole proceed- 
 ing, and disgusted with the position, had sheltered her- 
 self behind some casks of sugar. 
 
 Then it was that the kind veteran came forward and 
 tried to cheer us, reiterating, " Only two minutes more 
 to wait ! only two more ! " and then he pointed to a 
 book on his desk, which he explained was " Scozzese." 
 On opening it I found to my surprise a Naples edi- 
 tion in Italian of " ' Rob Roy ' per Walter Scott." I 
 said to him, " Sono Scozzese," and the old man crowed, 
 clapped his hands, laughed hysterically, everything but 
 danced. 
 
114 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 At length the excited clerk appeared in hot haste 
 with a long mysterious paper relating to our box, and 
 to which was appended a number of signatures. He 
 carried it to one gentleman in the glass counting-room, 
 but he, instead of adding his name there, came forth 
 with dignity, his cloak wrapped round him, and signed 
 on the high desk before us, a proceeding which was 
 quite unnecessary. Here a timely admonition from our 
 friend reminded me of the necessity of looking very 
 grave, as this last incident had led me for the moment 
 to look on the comical side of our troublesome situation 
 and indulge in a nervous laugh. 
 
 At this juncture the signal was given to us by the 
 kindly veteran to dismount and run after the red-haired 
 clerk with the long document. How we squeezed 
 through among the dusty chests ! How I got out from 
 between a cask and some greasy machine was to me a 
 matter of astonishment. 
 
 Arrived at the end of what was supposed to be a 
 passage amongst the goods, we reached a door, through 
 which our messenger passed, beckoning us to follow. 
 Through three offices, more or less filled with clerks, we 
 hurried after our guide until we reached the inner room, 
 w^here we found ourselves in the presence of the Diret- 
 tore Generale. He sat before a table strewed with 
 papers, and, pointing to chairs, asked us to be seated. 
 Our friend took a chair on his side of the room, while 
 I sank down on a sofa on mine. The red-haired clerk 
 rushed out of the room — in and out again, always 
 flourishing the paper ; and several Neapolitan gentle- 
 men crouched in with heads uncovered and in an atti- 
 tude of profound deference ; but the Direttore curtly 
 ordered them off one by one without a hearing. Then 
 began our cross-examination. 
 
OUR WHITE DEAL BOX. 115 
 
 When did we arrive ? How long were we going to 
 stay ? Where were we going to ? To Sicily ? To 
 Kome afterwards ? How long should we remain in 
 Eome ? And how long in Sicily ? Again laying stress 
 upon Kome, he demanded at what date we meant to 
 arrive there ? To these and other questions I meekly 
 replied. Finally he remarked that we had been a long 
 time in Naples, since the 24th ult. ? To which I an- 
 swered that we had been detained nearly three weeks 
 by my uncle's illness, which illness had prevented him 
 from applying personally for his case of fossils. 
 
 While answering this string of questions in the worst 
 possible French, I was conscious that our friend's 
 anxiety gave him the uneasy air of a culprit, and that 
 Carolina's unspoken indignation was more likely to 
 rouse than to dispel suspicion. The Direttore pondered 
 gravely on the evidence, and I tried to read his thoughts, 
 but in vain ! It was impossible to get any ray of light 
 from that impassive countenance ! To our relief the 
 clerk now returned with a fresh document, which was 
 signed by the chief, who, without a word as to his in- 
 tentions, directed us to follow our guide to witness the 
 opening of the box. 
 
 Out we passed again through all these offices with 
 their staring clerks, then were led to the left, across a 
 horrible back-court, into a large wareroom with counters 
 and weighing-machines. One man used a switch to 
 keep my dress clear of the barrels ! A curious group 
 stood round while our case was opened. The lid re- 
 moved, it was carried with great gravity to the largest 
 counter, the straw and pamphlets were taken out, and 
 then the fossils, with many suspicious glances directed 
 to them. The novel character of the goods seemed to 
 work like a charm in quieting our guide, who, after 
 
116 JOURNEYS m FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 tapping one of the jaws all over with his fingers with a 
 puzzled look, held it out to me asking what it meant. 
 I had begun to hope that now the trial was at an end, 
 and that we had only to gather up the specimens and 
 shake off the dust of the custom-house from our feet ; 
 but no. To one was given the rhinoceros skull, and he 
 was the functionary most to be felt for, since, in mortal 
 dread of an explosion, he held it at arm's length. 
 Another carried the jaws ; a third the teeth and other 
 fragments, while our guide took the pamphlets, and a 
 procession was formed, he of the rhinoceros skull lead- 
 ing the van, and I bringing up the rear. Anywhere, I 
 thought, but surely not back through all these rooms. 
 But back we marched through the line of offices, every 
 eye upon us, every pen idle at our approach. 
 
 Instead of the small inner room, we found the Diret- 
 tore seated in a large chamber at the end of a long 
 table, with about fourteen officials standing round it. 
 A strange and profound silence prevailed. The fossils, 
 with the pamphlets, were all laid upon the table, and 
 suspicious looks and many parleyings passed between 
 the members of that perplexed company. 
 
 After much discussion and what seemed a long pause, 
 the Direttore Generale ventured to touch the skull ; his 
 example inspired the others with courage, and one 
 braver than his fellows lifted a jaw. Curiosity getting 
 the better of the great Direttore, he called for La Sig- 
 nora, and for the moment forgot but that he was of the 
 same terrestrial race as those around. I stepped for- 
 ward to his end of the table, realising that all the 
 Italian I could muster had to be ready for the emerg- 
 ency ; he, however, addressed me in French. 
 
 " Qu'est que c'est ? " pointing to the skull. 
 
 " Une tete, monsieur," was my humble reply. 
 
OUR WHITE DEAL BOX. IIY 
 
 " Une t^te de quoi ? " 
 
 " D un animal," suggested one of the bystanders. 
 
 "Dun rhinoceros," I added; but the words were 
 scarcely uttered when the spirit of mischief uprose within 
 me, and whispered, Why not have called it crocodile ? 
 
 One of the company still holding the jaw which he 
 had selected, the Direttore again appealed to me for a 
 further definition. I was well posted up in the descrip- 
 tion of the specimens, and could have told him that it 
 was a mdchoire inferieure containing so many teeth. 
 But scared by fifteen pairs of eyes, the spirit of mischief 
 fled and cowardly nervousness took its place. Pointing 
 to the rhinoceros, I gasped out '* Dentri ! " (intended for 
 the Italian denti) ; the Direttore bowed as if he knew 
 all about it, yet no ray of intelligence lighted up the 
 features of his officials. The instant consciousness, 
 however, that I had made a great blunder was itself 
 of use to me. It overcame my nervousness, and 
 realising that now was the time for action, I made 
 what I intended to be a pathetic appeal to the Diret- 
 tore in French, framed quite regardless of grammar. 
 It, however, served its purpose. 
 
 " Eien que de monies, monsieur ! rien que de pl^tre ! 
 Seulement fossiles ! " I repeated over and over without 
 receiving an answer. In an undertone he consulted 
 with his staff", and hesitation dwelt on his face, while 
 his eyes travelled backwards and forwards from the 
 specimens to myself. After a series of whispered 
 consultations he appeared no nearer a decision than 
 at first. But by degrees, and after what seemed an 
 age, the cloud dispelled, he spoke volubly aside, the 
 fossils were gathered together, and I, who had breath- 
 lessly watched this pantomime, felt assured of their 
 safety. 
 
118 JOURNEYS IN FEANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 But stay ! the ordeal was not yet over. The books, 
 or rather pamphlets, were now put before the Direttore, 
 and, although doubtful as to their fate, my spirits rose 
 with the assured safety of the fossils. 
 
 " Eien que descriptions des fossiles ! Lisez, regardez 
 bien, monsieur, je vous prie!" I urged, and at the 
 same time making a movement to receive them from 
 him. But I miscalculated his intentions. Placing his 
 fingers on the cabalistic letters F.E.S. inscribed after 
 the owner's name on several of the outside leaves of 
 the pamphlets, he exclaimed — 
 
 " Non ! il faut une commission expres de pr^tres pour 
 les examiner." 
 
 I must have looked very indignant, for a second idea 
 seemed to strike him ; and, a more generous impulse 
 warming his cold frame, he selected ten of the larger 
 memoirs for the priests' report, and said I might take 
 possession of the others. I could make no remon- 
 strance, although those that he had reserved for cleri- 
 cal examination were the very ones descriptive of the 
 fossils, and therefore the most necessary for my uncle 
 to have restored. 
 
 Then, taking up a separate package of pamphlets 
 which had been given to us by a professor at Mont- 
 pellier for the late Professor Phillips of Oxford, he 
 again detected the unlucky letters F.R.S., and demanded 
 their exact meaning. Royal Society sounded well, but 
 how was the word Fellow to be rendered in French or 
 Italian ? I had to be careful, since it could be inter- 
 preted in more than one sense. A little heedlessness 
 on my part might bring on my uncle the same sentence 
 as was passed in another Italian town on a Cambridge 
 don who had "Senior Wrangler" inscribed on his pass- 
 port. The police translated the words as " inveterate 
 
OUR WHITE DEAL BOX. 119 
 
 brawler " ! [Rissatore inveterato deW Universita di 
 Cantabrigia), and he was in consequence denied per- 
 mission to travel, and was detained eight days before 
 being allowed to proceed ! 
 
 I explained to the Direttore that F.E.S. was a title 
 of distinction, signifying membership of a society into 
 which men were elected who had achieved original 
 work in science. One could see that the word science 
 was distasteful. 
 
 After a close inspection of the memoirs, and after 
 studying the title-pages of several, all at once a brilliant 
 idea came to him. 
 
 " C'est d'histoire naturelle ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " Oui, monsieur, ils sont tons de I'histoire naturelle." 
 
 One hand still grasped the ten largest copies, but 
 with the other he gave me the small ones, adding that, 
 as the next day was Sunday, and Monday a festa, the 
 priests could not assemble until Tuesday. We bowed 
 acquiescence — what else could be done ? And, too 
 thankful to be released, our procession once more re- 
 formed, and we again traversed the line of rooms, 
 through the court on into the goods warehouse. 
 
 After the fossils had all been weighed and re-packed, 
 the red-haired clerk darted off with the long paper, then 
 reappeared, and conducted us to a densely crowded 
 room where the men were being paid their Saturday 
 wages. Here the smell of grease was so overpowering 
 that I^ was glad to get to an open door and stand 
 outside, waiting for the formal surrender of the box. 
 Finally, our messenger — in whose charge we had doubt- 
 less been placed — came to tell us that we were only 
 to be charged duty for the casts of fossils under the 
 head of works of art, and that this duty amounted to 
 one piastre. We had been prepared to pay heavily for 
 
120 JOURNEYS IN FKANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 the ransom of the box, yet, unreasonable mortals as 
 we are, we now felt actual disappointment that the 
 fossil casts which had involved us in such an expen- 
 diture of time and of patience were not rated at 
 a higher figure than one piastre ! Away he ran 
 with the money, and back again ; then on to another 
 office, finally whirling us after him to our white deal 
 case, of which we were now again in actual possession, 
 minus the ten thick memoirs. Although in a state of 
 exhaustion from his exertions on our behalf, our guide 
 nevertheless escorted us and our fossils to the exit, and 
 witnessed our triumphal departure after that long and 
 anxious day in the custom-house of Naples. 
 
 Yet a few more words for the sequel. Not on Tues- 
 day, but on an early day after, my uncle was able to 
 venture out, when I once more found myself at the 
 custom - house. I had no desire to enter it again ; 
 therefore, while he applied at the office for restoration 
 of his pamphlets, I remained in the carriage, and, to 
 pass the time, looked over some pages of ' Murray.' 
 After a while my uncle and Carolina returned, both 
 shaking with laughter, and saying that the officials had 
 insisted on seeing la donna delle ossa, and that the 
 pamphlets were only for her. They had, in short, 
 refused to give my uncle his own property ! While 
 waiting, I had observed from time to time that little 
 relays of officials had peered out to inspect the carriage 
 and its occupant, to make certain that she was really 
 la donna delle ossa ! Presently our friendly red-haired 
 messenger came out, and, with a profound bow and a 
 flourish, counted over the ten memoirs, and handed 
 them to me — not to my uncle, who lay back in the 
 carriage convulsed with laughter. 
 
OUR WHITE DEAL BOX. 121 
 
 The very remembrance of this curious adventure stirs 
 one, even at this far-distant date, to laughter. Some of 
 the scenes were so inexpressibly comic ! Yet, alas ! — 
 
 " Our sincerest laughter 
 "With some pain is fraught." 
 
 Behind the laughter there are tears. For the geologist, 
 on whose every word we hung, has long since joined 
 the majority. 
 
AN EVENING WITH MRS SOMERVILLE. 
 
 As eacli successive year inevitably narrows the once 
 wide circle of friends who had the privilege of being 
 received by Mrs Somerville in her own home, it may be 
 well to jot down one's recollections of an evening spent 
 in her society more than three-and-thirty years ago. 
 
 When passing through Florence in the spring of 
 1859, Mrs Somerville's card was left at our hotel, 
 with the invitation pencilled in her well-known hand- 
 writing, " Will you all come to drink tea with us to- 
 morrow evening ? Do not trouble to make a toilette." 
 We were a party of four — two uncles with two nieces, 
 one of the former being Dr Hugh Falconer, the dis- 
 tinguished naturalist, who was an old friend of Mrs 
 Somerville's : our other uncle had recently returned 
 from Australia, where he had spent his life, and, like 
 his nieces, was not scientific. 
 
 Doubtless, but for our naturalist's personal intro- 
 duction, we three others would have felt no little 
 trepidation in presenting ourselves at her house in 
 the Via del Mandorlo, and seeking acquaintance with 
 the authoress of ' The Connection of the Physical 
 Sciences,' a work which had reached nine editions in 
 this country, besides those in America and foreign 
 translations. We should hardly have had courage to 
 meet this formidable lady, of whom Laplace had said 
 that only two women in the world could understand 
 
AN EVENING WITH MRS SOMERVILLE. 123 
 
 his ' Mecanique Celeste/ one being Mrs Greig and the 
 other Mrs Somerville (who were one and the same 
 individual, as, several years after the death of Mr 
 Greig, she became the wife of Dr William Somerville, 
 her cousin). Nevertheless we were all eager to meet 
 our illustrious countrywoman, and were conscious that 
 this opportunity was never likely to recur. 
 
 When ushered into the modest drawing-room, it was 
 to find that other guests there were none, and that we 
 had the privilege of being received into the little family 
 circle, which consisted of Dr and Mrs Somerville, and 
 their two unmarried daughters, Martha and Mary. It 
 felt as if the palaces and pictures of Florence had 
 all vanished like a dream, and that we had been 
 transported back into our own country, into a happy 
 English home. 
 
 Our hostess came forward, and in her simple natural 
 manner gave us all a cordial welcome. Instead of a 
 formidable woman who looked us up and down and 
 made one feel the distance at w^hich we were from 
 her, here was a refined, gentle-looking, elderly lady, 
 below the middle height, eager to set us at our ease, 
 her slight graceful figure clad in a plain dress of the 
 soft black silk of the country, her cap of fine old lace 
 brightened by light lavender ribbons. So far from 
 looking *' strong-minded," I at the first glance set 
 her down in my own mind as dainty, the simplicity 
 and fitness of her dress and surroundings were all so 
 harmonious. At a second glance, however, it was to 
 realise that we were in the presence of an uncom- 
 mon woman. There was no mock humility, no false 
 modesty, but there was the stamp of dignity on her 
 features, and, if I might use a long word, a self-con- 
 tainedness that could not fail to impress those who 
 
124 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 came in contact with her. The light brown hair was 
 only streaked with grey, the smooth forehead showed 
 few wrinkles, and no matter what the subject of con- 
 versation was, the shining, penetrating grey eyes were 
 turned full upon the speaker with rapt attention. 
 Withal, there was a sprightliness, a mental freshness, 
 rare to find in man or woman. The bust by Chantrey, 
 which stands in the library of the Eoyal Society at 
 Burlington House, is an admirable likeness of Mrs 
 Somerville, but it reproduces the grave scientific 
 mood, and misses, as marble invariably must, the 
 vivacity which was the charm of the countenance in 
 life. Nor could it give the delicate complexion for 
 which in her girlhood Mary Fairfax was noted, 
 which won her the title of " The Eose of Jedwood," 
 and traces of which she still retained. It is, however, 
 altogether misleading to describe her as elderly, as at 
 the date of our visit she must have been seventy- 
 eight years of age. 
 
 Dr Somerville, looking much older than his wife, 
 was evidently feeble, and during the evening kept in 
 his comfortable arm-chair by the fire. He was more 
 a listener than a talker, and well content to hear the 
 soft -toned voice of his wife : he followed her every 
 movement with loving eyes. The Miss Somervilles — 
 middle-aged, and fair-haired like their father — were 
 especially pleasant and kind, exerting themselves in 
 every possible way to entertain us. 
 
 Conversation did not languish. Our uncle, Dr 
 Falconer, was soon giving Mrs Somerville a graphic 
 account of his discoveries in Sicilian caves during the 
 winter, and it was a sight to see the quiet eager 
 interest with which she listened to this recital of his 
 finding flint implements made by human hands in 
 
AN EVENING WITH MRS SOMERVILLE. 125 
 
 association with remains of extinct animals in the 
 Cave of Maccagnone, and to hear her trenchant 
 questions as to what date they could be referred. 
 His racy descriptions in recounting his experiences 
 at the Cave of San Ciro, near Palermo, amused us 
 all much. The field in front of it was strewn with 
 fossil hippopotamus teeth, and well we remember the 
 shouts of delight with which the peasant mothers and 
 children welcomed us on our daily visits to the cave. 
 On one occasion we counted a crowd of forty -two 
 women and children, and it was comical to see infants, 
 with outstretched arms, their tiny fingers clasping a 
 molar of hippopotamus. The mothers thought them- 
 selves liberally rewarded with a few quattrini, the 
 smallest imaginable copper coins. The merriment 
 with which he related these Sicilian anecdotes was 
 infectious. 
 
 Yet while he talked, and we all enjoyed the recital, 
 we had not forgotten to look round the room again and 
 again for one object which was missing. This was Mrs 
 Somerville's serviceable work-basket : although the pro- 
 found mathematician, she was an expert needlewoman, 
 and our uncle told us that on a previous occasion, when 
 calling upon her, he found the authoress of * The Con- 
 nection of the Physical Sciences ' busily engaged in 
 darning, with the homely basket of family stockings 
 before her. We can understand how well and how 
 carefully that darning would be done. She loved 
 needlework, and excelled in it ; her daughters pos- 
 sessed beautiful specimens of her embroidery and lace- 
 work, and we are told that at ninety she could count 
 the threads of a fine canvas without spectacles. 
 
 Perhaps the chief feature of that evening was Mrs 
 Somerville's interchange of talk with our non-scientific 
 
126 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 uncle, who had led a lonely life in Australia. Our 
 hostess had many questions to ask about the Colonies 
 — questions that were prompted by real and not by 
 any forced interest. She elicited much about the 
 aborigines, the climate, the coral reefs, the sudden 
 growth of cities, and the life in the Bush. He had 
 telling anecdotes of an out-of-the-way experience, and 
 a fund of information about regions then imperfectly 
 known. In short, he was completely fascinated. 
 Wherein was her power of attraction ? Was it that 
 she was so gentle and genuine, and threw herself with 
 such interest into the subject? We believe that in 
 this case it was partly the charm of her strong Scottish 
 accent, which fell like music on the ears of a country- 
 man who had been so long an exile. Mary Somerville 
 was the ideal Scottish gentlewoman. 
 
 We learned from Miss Martha Somerville, who after- 
 wards edited the ' Personal Kecollections,' that then 
 her mother's scientific writing was all done in bed in 
 the morning hours, from nine to one, before she got 
 up ; her afternoons were often occupied with light 
 literature, or with drawing and sketching in water- 
 colours, in which she took unfailing pleasure ; and in 
 the evening her house was open to friends. 
 
 When conversation became general and turned on 
 modern English and American books, we were sur- 
 prised to find that the woman who wrote upon abstract 
 science knew more of the best current literature and 
 about poetry than any of us. She had read the latest 
 books, and in science was posted up in all the ques- 
 tions of the day. I shall not forget how, with that 
 quaint Scottish accent and in that remarkably soft 
 voice, she expressed her opinion that scenery and 
 landscapes in England were as beautiful as those of 
 
AN EVENING WITH MRS SOMERVILLE. 127 
 
 Italy, but that the absence of sunlight made the great 
 difference between them. 
 
 Her daughters said it was almost incredible what 
 their mother contrived to do in each day. No doubt 
 the early education of her Scottish home stood her in 
 good stead, and begot tastes and habits which were a 
 refreshment to her in after-life, especially when grap- 
 pling with some abstruse problem. For instance, if 
 she found herself tired, and her attention difficult to 
 keep fixed, she put aside mathematical work and took 
 up her embroidery, or a novel, or some other occupa- 
 tion for a time, and then returned to her problem fresh 
 and with vigour. She was a very good housewife and 
 a thrifty one, and an " excellent judge of a well-dressed 
 dejeuner" and, as a girl, with her own hands prepared 
 the creams and jellies for her mother's little supper 
 parties. Then the household linen (of home-grown 
 flax spun by the maids) was not only mended and 
 made by the young Mary, but her own dresses, even 
 ball dresses for dances in Edinburgh, were her own 
 handiwork. We read of her going to a pastrycook's 
 daily, there to take lessons which were turned to 
 account in after-life. She was an excellent cook, and 
 the gift in later years of a large quantity of orange 
 marmalade of her own making to Sir Edward Parry's 
 third Arctic expedition is quite characteristic. Her 
 practical education was so many-sided that it is diffi- 
 cult to say what she did not learn. 
 
 Yet in the midst of cooking and dancing lessons and 
 painting lessons, besides practising four or five hours 
 daily on the piano, for she was passionately fond of 
 music, we find that the girl's thirst for knowledge was 
 unsatisfied. In order to fill up odd moments of time, 
 she taught herself a certain amount of Latin, and sub- 
 
128 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 sequently learned enough Greek to read Xenophon and 
 part of Herodotus. 
 
 It was in groping after knowledge that the young 
 Mary's curiosity was awakened by seeing on a page 
 of a magazine of fashions strange-looking lines mixed 
 with letters — "chiefly xs and ys,'' and was told in 
 answer to her inquiry that this was algebra. Hence 
 the beginning of the work of her life. The history of 
 the manner in which with very little help she acquired 
 this algebra and learned mathematics, and of the diffi- 
 culties she had to encounter in educating herself, con- 
 stitute a striking chapter of her noble life. Much of 
 her education was unaided and worked out alone. For 
 instance, we read, " Mary was so busy before she began 
 Euclid that it is not astonishing that she found a little 
 difficulty in making the new study ' fit in ' with all her 
 other work." Already she rose early that she might 
 find time for practising music : now she found it neces- 
 sary to sit up late for algebra. This habit was eventu- 
 ally put a stop to, not because it was too much for the 
 girl, but because of the consumption of too many 
 candles. " The servants complained that it was no 
 wonder the stock of candles was soon exhausted, for 
 Miss Mary sat up reading till a late hour." So orders 
 were given that Miss Mary's candle should be taken 
 away as soon as she was in bed. 
 
 Doubtless that patient protracted struggle in order 
 to obtain books or instruction, likewise the ridicule to 
 which she was exposed by those who jeered at those 
 *' foolish studies," helped to make her the eager cham- 
 pion throughout life for the removal of the disabilities 
 of women, and for opening up a literary or a scientific 
 career for those among them who desired it. And does 
 not her practical usefulness disprove the assertion that 
 
AN EVENING WITH MRS SOMERVILLE. 129 
 
 higher education unfits women for home duties ? With 
 Mary Somerville her home duties came first, — nothing 
 was ever allowed to interfere with those. 
 
 When one ponders on her career, it is hard to say 
 what stage of it one most admires. Is it childhood, 
 when the little Mary would have nothing to do with 
 dolls or toys like other children, but had an enthusi- 
 astic afi'ection for birds and animals and all living 
 things, and wandered about the sea -shore and on 
 the links at Burntisland, gathering shells and wild- 
 flowers, and making collections of sea - birds' eggs ? 
 The little maiden was kept busy as a bee, shelling 
 peas and beans, picking currants, feeding the fowls 
 and looking after the dairy, her father instructing her 
 how to lay carnations and distinguish between leaf- 
 and fruit-buds in pruning trees. 
 
 But is not her girlhood of greater significance, when 
 in the midst of all her home avocations — all the cookery, 
 the stitching of fine linen shirts, the making and 
 mending, the painting and practising on the piano 
 (she had learnt how to mend the broken strings and 
 tune it) — the young girl found time to pass hours at 
 the window of her bedroom studying the stars by the 
 aid of the celestial globe ? We are told that many 
 midnight hours were spent by her seated at this 
 window, watching the planets and marvelling at their 
 movements. Was it not too in her girlhood that by 
 chance she stumbled on the key which was afterwards 
 to unlock for her a knowledge of the great laws that 
 govern the universe, and in her eagerness to learn the 
 use of this key, it was then that Mary Fairfax rose at 
 daybreak, and, seated dressed upon her bed, studied 
 Euclid for hours before breakfast, with a blanket 
 wrapped round her for the bitter cold? 
 
 I 
 
130 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 It is not, however, as the mature woman who had 
 achieved a world-wide fame that she most attracts us ? 
 Maria Edgeworth aptly described her in saying, " Her 
 head is among the stars, while her feet are firm upon 
 the earth." One can picture her then conducting the 
 education of her two little daughters, "teaching them 
 as much as I am capable of teaching them," while 
 passing difficult works through the press, and never 
 impatient except when they were inattentive. A pet 
 sparrow was generally perched asleep upon her arm as 
 she wrote. 
 
 But the glorious old age of which we had a glimpse 
 was ennobled by the deeply religious feeling that had 
 .pervaded her whole life. That sight of Mary Somer- 
 ville in her own home as the beloved wife and devoted 
 mother made an impression that can never be efi*aced. 
 
 On turning over the leaves of her * Personal Re- 
 collections ' we find that she alludes to our evening 
 visit in a letter to her son, the late Mr Woronzow 
 Greig. It is dated Florence, May 29, 1859. After 
 mentioning that she had bought quantities of old linen, 
 and with her daughters spent the day in making ban- 
 dages for the wounded soldiers fighting for the inde- 
 pendence of Italy, she goes on to say : " We have had 
 a visit from Dr Falconer, his two nieces, and brother. 
 They had been spending the winter in Sicily, where 
 he discovered rude implements formed by man, mixed 
 with the bones of prehistoric animals, in a cave so 
 hermetically shut up, that not a doubt is left of a race 
 of men having lived at a period far anterior to that 
 assigned as the origin of mankind. Similar discoveries 
 have recently been made elsewhere. Dr Falconer had 
 travelled much in the Himalayas, and lived two years 
 on the great plain of Tibet : the account he gave me 
 
AN EVENING WITH MRS SOMERVILLE. 131 
 
 of it was most interesting. His brother spent fifteen 
 years ^ in Australia, so the conversation delighted me : 
 I learnt so much that was new." 
 
 A cordial invitation was given to spend one more 
 evening, but time pressed, and to our regret we were 
 unable to return. Just before leaving Florence our 
 naturalist had a note from Mrs Somerville to introduce 
 an Italian gentleman who was desirous of acquiring 
 information about the boracic acid works in Tuscany, 
 which had brought large fortunes to those who had 
 utilised the thermal springs. With her own ardent 
 thirst for knowledge, she was ever eager to help for- 
 ward other workers. 
 
 In another unpublished letter to the same relative, 
 the writer records her keen interest in the great politi- 
 cal events happening in Italy, and gives her impres- 
 sions of Victor Emmanuel's entrance as king into the 
 beautiful old city. Her sympathies had all along been 
 on the side of a united Italy. The letter is a long one, 
 so we shall only make one or two extracts. Its date is 
 Florence, April 27, 1860, when Mary Somerville was 
 in her eightieth year : — 
 
 Dear Dr Falconer, — It has given me much pleasure to be 
 so kindly remembered by your niece . . . and you. I hope 
 the two ladies and you will be induced to return to Florence 
 and make us a longer visit than you did last time. I regret 
 you are not here just now to see the intense enthusiasm with 
 which the Florentines of all ranks have received their adopted 
 king. He is an excellent horseman, and the excitement was 
 extreme when he, with his well-mounted and brilliant suite, 
 rode through the decorated streets under a shower of flowers. 
 The crowd was immense, between thirty and forty thousand 
 had come from all quarters for the occasion, and no carriages 
 
 1 It was more than twenty-five years. 
 
132 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 were allowed ; but as we were invited by the Marchesa Lajatico 
 to her balcony, I saw this singular and interesting historical 
 event without fatigue, but Mr Somerville feared it would be 
 too much for him, though he is remarkably well. I have gone 
 to nothing else, as my daughters have many friends to take 
 them wherever they may wish to go, but everything has been 
 made gloomy by torrents of rain and cold. I never have seen 
 so bad a season in Italy. I am now writing by a large fire. 
 . . . Murray has sent me a copy of Mr Darwin's celebrated 
 work: it certainly is the most profound investigation of an 
 extremely difficult subject, and will no doubt give rise to much 
 discussion. I am curious to see what they can say against it 
 in the ' Eeview.' . . . We all unite in every kind wish to your 
 niece . . . and you, and be assured that I am always most 
 sincerely yours, Mary Somerville. 
 
 Ten years later we had one more interview with 
 Mary Somerville. Early in 1870 my husband and I 
 being in Naples, and knowing that she had moved from 
 Florence soon after Dr Somerville's death, we went to 
 her flat in the Chiatamone, and were fortunate enough 
 to see her. If less animated, she looked only a little 
 older, but as her daughters were out it must have 
 been an effort to sustain the conversation with my 
 husband, who was a stranger, and known only to her 
 by reputation. We were received with the old cordi- 
 ality. Perhaps she had become more grave, still there 
 was the same serenity, the same unquenchable thirst 
 for knowledge, and the same trenchant questions. In 
 alluding to the move to Naples, she did not add that 
 it was chosen as a last home in which to end her days, 
 yet I took it as implied, and the consequent sadness 
 marred all my enjoyment of that last meeting. Her 
 mental powers were keen and clear as ever, and Vesu- 
 vius and volcanoes were discussed, while I remained 
 a quiet listener. Her room was flooded with sunshine, 
 
AN EVENING WITH MRS SOMERVILLE. 133 
 
 the windows thrown open and admitting the view of 
 the beautiful bay. 
 
 As the sun sank to rest that day in more than usual 
 splendour, one could only think of Mary Somerville's 
 glorious old age and its resemblance to a golden sunset. 
 Her years far exceeded the ordinary span of human life, 
 and we knew that we had looked upon that never-to-be- 
 forgotten face and form for the last time. 
 
 Her last work on ' Molecular and Microscopic Science ' 
 was published in 1869, three years before her death. 
 For a motto she chose as most appropriate, " Deus 
 magnus in magnis, maximus in minimis.' 
 
 It is stated by Martha Somerville that her mother s 
 rare powers shone with undimmed lustre to the end. 
 Her last occupations, continued to the actual day of 
 her death, were the revision and completion of a 
 treatise which she had written years before on the 
 * Theory of Diflferences ' (with diagrams exquisitely 
 drawn), and the study of a book on * Quaternions.' 
 She cherished her talents as a great gift, and the use 
 she made of them will serve as a stimulus and a beacon 
 to less gifted sisters. The difficulties encountered in 
 acquiring her mathematical knowledge seemed insur- 
 mountable, but she went on her way with quiet per- 
 severance and overcame all opposition. Mary Somer- 
 ville was eminently feminine, and had what such a 
 woman as she would value as the highest reward — the 
 spontaneous homage of hearts and the admiration of 
 the thinking world. 
 
 As a specimen of her writing, we extract a sentence 
 from the ' Preliminary Dissertation ' : '* At a very 
 small height above the surface of the earth the noise 
 of the tempest ceases, and the thunder is heard no 
 more in those boundless regions where the heavenly 
 
134 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 bodies accomplish their periods in eternal and sublime 
 silence." 
 
 Again, in the ' Recollections ' this passage occurs : 
 " So that the stability of the solar system is ensured 
 for unlimited ages. Tlie perturbations are only the 
 oscillations of that immense pendulum of eternity, 
 which heats centuries as ours heats seconds.'^ The 
 italics are ours. 
 
 One more quotation : — 
 
 I am now in my 92nd year (1872), still able to drive out for 
 several hours. I am extremely deaf, and my memory of 
 ordinary events, and especially of the names of people, is failing, 
 but not for mathematical and scientific subjects. I am still 
 able to read books on the higher algebra for four or five hours 
 in the morning, and even to solve the problems. Sometimes I 
 find them difficult, but the old obstinacy remains, for if I do not 
 succeed to-day I attack them again on the morrow. I also 
 enjoy reading about all the new discoveries and theories in 
 the scientific world, and on all branches of science. . . . 
 
 But we must curtail, and only give the last touching 
 words : — 
 
 The Blue Peter has been long flying at my foremast; and 
 now that I am in my ninety-second year, I must soon expect 
 the signal for sailing. It is a solemn voyage, but it does not 
 disturb my tranquillity. Deeply sensible of my utter un- 
 worthiness, and profoundly grateful for the innumerable 
 blessings I have received, I trust in the infinite mercy of my 
 Almighty Creator. I have every reason to be thankful that 
 my intellect is still unimpaired, and although my strength is 
 weakness, my daughters support my tottering steps, and, by 
 incessant care and help, make the infirmities of age so light to 
 me that I am perfectly happy. 
 
 The old age of Mary Somerville stands almost alone, 
 so far as we know, and if we consider her sex, without 
 a parallel. 
 
IN MANTUA DUEING THE AUSTRO- 
 ITALIAN WAR. 
 
 Among out-of-the-way incidents of travel in Italy, 
 the most remarkable in our experience was a visit paid 
 [in 1861] to Mantua, the great fortress of the Quadri- 
 lateral, while it was in Austrian occupation, and during 
 the Austro - Italian war. Probably few women can 
 testify to having spent two nights within the walls of 
 the fortress under such conditions, therefore we are 
 tempted to jot down our recollections. Across the dim 
 years those recollections stand out clear and distinct, 
 as if they mirrored the events of yesterday. 
 
 A six weeks' truce had not come to an end, and there 
 were consequently no active hostilities, still on looking 
 back we are inclined to think that the expedition was 
 more venturesome than prudent, if not altogether fool- 
 hardy. Our uncle, Dr Falconer, considered it practi- 
 cable ; we had implicit confidence in his judgment, and 
 when he expressed a wish to see the two great Austrian 
 military centres, Mantua and Verona, we others caught 
 at his suggestion, and it at once became a definite 
 plan. Ultimately, no harm befell us, and we all 
 emerged from the walls of Mantua safe and sound, 
 yet with an unmistakable sensation of relief, and 
 with the conviction that we could advise no one to 
 follow our example. 
 
 Though now so little before the public, in those days 
 
136 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 the Quadrilateral was a familiar term. It was the 
 word that weighed most heavily on Italian hearts ; it 
 was the stronghold of Austrian power in Italy, and 
 with Mantua at its southern extremity armed to the 
 teeth and supported by three other fortresses, the 
 barrier which hindered the captive provinces from 
 regaining their freedom seemed insurmountable. The 
 two southern angles of the Quadrilateral were Mantua 
 on the Mincio and Legnago on the Adige : Peschiera on 
 the Mincio was at the north-west point at one end of 
 Lake Garda, while Verona — the most important in size 
 — spread over both banks of the swift-flowing Adige, 
 which cuts the city in two. The Austrian army, dis- 
 tributed in the vast intrenched camp and tower- 
 crowned heights round Verona, was so incredibly large 
 that we forbear to give the figures. But the strength 
 of Mantua lay in concentration, in its impregnable 
 walls, in its reputation of yielding to no enemy but 
 famine, and in its menacing position down among the 
 very plains of Italy, with, so to speak, the eyes of all 
 Italy directed wistfully to it. Verona amazed us by 
 the magnitude of its garrison of tens of thousands, yet 
 did not strike awe into us as did the armour-clad 
 Mantua. 
 
 As far back as 1861, and in the end of May, we 
 found ourselves again in Bologna after an interesting 
 visit to the City of the exarchs. Our intention was 
 to proceed to Venice, when, of course, the direct and 
 easy road would have been by Ferrara and Padua. 
 It was then that the suggestion of a detour by Mantua 
 and Verona was made : the mention of the former — so 
 little known and so little visited — was irresistible, and 
 we were all of one mind, insisting to each other that 
 as British subjects we were safe from risk in entering 
 
IN MANTUA DURING THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN WAR. 137 
 
 two of the fortresses held by Austria. The leader of our 
 little party had only to make the sign, and without a 
 shade of misgiving we were ready and eager to follow. 
 
 First, as to Bologna, which had been our resting-place 
 for several weeks. A stay there gave us curious ex- 
 periences of its climate : for instance, snow had lain on 
 the streets early in May, but by the end of the month 
 (to use the expression of a resident, who enunciated 
 the word with a ringing emphasis on the letter r) the 
 heat had become "ter-rible." The out-of-door habits 
 of men and women had undergone a complete change. 
 The main work of the day — Le., the market in the open 
 streets — bad all to be accomplished before nine in the 
 morning; and even then the vendors were under 
 shelter of huge white cotton umbrellas poised over the 
 little carts of vegetables. And in consequence of the 
 sudden heat we all agreed that evening drives on the 
 well- watered promenade outside the city wall were the 
 only admissible form of exercise, when a kind Bolog- 
 nese friend generally accompanied us and described the 
 chief points of interest. Then we were able to have a 
 glimpse of Italian beauty, or scrutinise the manly 
 bearing of soldier groups of the national army of Italy, 
 a large body of troops being then quartered in Bologna 
 under General Cialdini. 
 
 On entering by the Porta S. Mammolo after one of 
 these evening rides an amusing anecdote was told to us 
 as illustrative of the state of Bologna little more than a 
 year before. The officer in command of the National 
 Guard was returning at dusk from the country in a 
 phaeton with his wife, a servant being on the seat 
 behind, when, having just driven within the gate, a 
 band of brigands suddenly surrounded them. In a 
 twinkling the horses' heads were held, the servant 
 
138 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 was gagged, and in the moment of surprise his brace of 
 pistols was cleverly abstracted from the gallant gen- 
 eral's side. Eesistance was vain ; the weapons secured, 
 no further violence was offered, and the general and 
 his wife were suffered to continue their homeward course 
 through a few adjoining streets ! The story was told 
 to one or two friends in strict confidence, and of course 
 gradually oozed out. Further, we were assured that 
 about the same time the diligence starting for Florence 
 had been robbed in the streets of Bologna in open 
 day. Fortunately for us, these narratives were by- 
 gones, and the improved security within the city was 
 something marvellous to have been effected in so brief 
 a time. 
 
 One more story of brigandage we shall, however, re- 
 count, which caps all others for its audacity, and which 
 also shows the condition of the district at a few years' 
 earlier date. 
 
 In 1848 a town not far from Bologna was the scene 
 of an exploit of the notorious brigand Belloni, better 
 known as ''II Passatore." Several editions of the story 
 have appeared, but the substance of all is as follows. 
 This papal town was then held by a detachment of 
 Austrian soldiers. One summer evening in the crowded 
 theatre an impatient house demanded the drawing of 
 the curtain preliminary to the first act. There was 
 unusual delay, and when at last it was upraised, " II 
 Passatore" and his armed band occupied the stage, 
 with muskets aimed at the affrighted audience. The 
 chief stepped forward and in courteous words informed 
 the house that every door and outlet were secured, 
 that those who sat still might rely upon his word 
 that they would be safe and uninjured, but that the 
 first to rise or move should be shot down. He next 
 
IN MANTQA DURING THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN WAR. 139 
 
 stated that he should levy a tax per head, which he 
 then and there collected, taking care to extort a double 
 contribution from the rich man, and a heavy ransom 
 from the municipal authorities. Not one man in the 
 audience carried arms, and each was aware that one 
 of their number rising might be the signal for a whole- 
 sale massacre. The gang made off with their booty 
 unmolested, and it would be hard to say whether the 
 Italian mind felt more admiration at the matchless 
 audacity of the exploit or disgust at being so plun- 
 dered. Although the bandit escaped at the time, he 
 was soon afterwards hunted down by the Austrian 
 military and paid the penalty with his life. The tale 
 was told to us by an unimpeachable authority. 
 
 At length the start for Mantua was made, and two 
 hours' journey by rail took us from the splendidly 
 fertile plains of Bologna, through a veritable garden 
 of vines and mulberries, on to the old Eoman city of 
 Eeggio. The richness of the soil was passing descrip- 
 tion, it being mostly covered with a network of vines 
 which flung their trailing branches from tree to tree 
 in every conceivable form of festoon or garland. We 
 were four of a party, three Scots and one Italian 
 — namely, we two sisters with our uncle Dr Hugh 
 Falconer, and the distinguished Professor of Geology 
 at Bologna, now rector of its university. Our friend 
 Professor Capellini was some little anxiety, as, being 
 an Italian subject, we were not sure but that difficulties 
 might arise in passing him across the Austrian frontier. 
 We begged of him to reconsider his plans, but he was 
 all eagerness to accompany us, and declared that he 
 would run the risk. 
 
 At Eeggio, where we left the rail, we could only 
 hear of one carriage large enough to convey ourselves 
 
140 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 and luggage to Mantua, and breakfast at the hotel 
 was enlivened by a series of clamorous visits from 
 the knowing vetturino, who after each sally lowered 
 his price. On a threat that rather than encourage 
 extortion we should proceed by train to Modena and 
 procure a carriage there at the current rate, he at 
 once changed his tone, and agreed to half the sum 
 first asked, on condition that he should furnish three 
 instead of four horses. With the voluntary help of 
 several of the lawless - looking crowd, who swarmed 
 about the hotel and took a keen interest in our pro- 
 ceedings, the luggage was quickly made fast on the 
 carriage. Our destination was an evident surprise to 
 them, and there were many comments — sotto voce. 
 The men of Eeggio were notorious for their ready 
 use of the stiletto, but we were hardly prepared for 
 such an assemblage of reckless -looking characters as 
 thronged the quaint narrow streets. They gave one 
 the impression of so many brigands waiting to engage 
 in some deed of daring or of violence. The broad- 
 brimmed hats which they wore had received very 
 rough handling in at least one campaign, but the 
 irregularities of outline did not lessen their pictorial 
 effect. These men were probably only holding them- 
 selves in readiness for the expiration of the truce, 
 and seemed quite happy smoking a cigar and watch- 
 ing the brisk sales at the portable grain and vege- 
 table counters, the business of the shops being carried 
 on out of doors by women in the shady streets. 
 
 From its position near to the frontier, Eeggio had to 
 face great disadvantages, and two wrecks of buildings 
 which attracted our notice were evidently not the ruins 
 of ages. We had meant to find the house assigned by 
 tradition as the brithplace of Ariosto, but we had been 
 
IN MANTUA DURING THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN WAR. 141 
 
 delayed by the tedious and unsatisfactory system of 
 bargaining, and were anxious to push on. 
 
 Up a short incline outside the town the horses 
 ploughed their way through sinking dust a foot in 
 depth and like so much powder ; but once on the 
 summit of the slope, we gained the excellent road — 
 a long avenue edged with mulberry- and poplar-trees 
 — through luxuriant corn-fields and rich pastures, with 
 an occasional crop of flax in bluest bloom or glowing 
 crimson clover. One backward glance we cast on the 
 fast-receding flanks of the purple Apennines, their outer 
 ridges a mass of undulating hills which presented no 
 bold mountainous features, but rather a natural fertility 
 enhanced by careful cultivation. 
 
 In entering the country of Virgil it was natural that 
 each of us in silence should indulge in a meditative 
 train of thought, and one could not but remember 
 the apostrophe of Dante to his illustrious master and 
 guide. Was ever tribute rendered in simpler or nobler 
 language ? — 
 
 " degli altri poeti onore e lume, 
 Vagliami il lungo studio e il grande amore, 
 Che m'han fatto cercar lo tuo volume. 
 
 Tu se' lo mio maestro e il mio autore." ^ 
 
 In reading for ourselves the verse of the Mantuan 
 bard, it is strange to note how often and how aptly 
 his delineations of the face of Nature then fit the 
 features and the cultivation of our own times. He 
 did not even omit "the crop of flax that burns the 
 
 * " Glory and light of all the tuneful train I 
 May it avail me, that I long with zeal 
 Have sought thy volume, and with love immense 
 Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou, and guide ! " 
 
 — In the Rev. H. F. Gary's translation. 
 
142 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 ground," and the brilliancy of which had excited our 
 admiration. 
 
 Before reaching the Austrian outposts we stopped 
 for refreshment at a small town, the battered gables 
 at the northern end telling their own tale. Here our 
 vetturino had to be left behind, as his passport proved 
 not to be in accordance with the formula prescribed 
 at the imperial police office. He however provided us 
 with a good substitute, who, besides being known at 
 Mantua, possessed the requisite official document, which 
 entered into a curious description of his person : his 
 eyebrows were minutely described as well as his eyes. 
 
 It was not until nearing the Po that we traversed 
 the short space between the outposts, and exchanged 
 the banner of the cross of Savoy, with its gay colours 
 of red, white, and green, for the black eagles of 
 Austria, which to our eyes looked sombre on their 
 ground of uniform yellow. Two active Italian soldiers 
 (Bersaglieri, from their dark uniform and plumed hats) 
 waved us a friendly farewell : they were assured of our 
 sympathies, for who could have travelled in Italy 
 during this phase of the nation's history and not have 
 been stirred on behalf of the gifted people struggling 
 for long-lost liberty? Involuntarily the old Tuscan 
 lines of Filicaia's noble sonnet came to one's mind, 
 and how fitly they applied to the position at the 
 moment of the richly endowed country ! Hers was 
 still "the fatal gift of beauty," her victorious battles 
 had still been fought by other armour, and, "victress 
 or vanquished," she was still in bondage ! 
 
 Perhaps only they who, like ourselves, had compared 
 the joyous freedom of the liberated States with the 
 thraldom of those under an alien rule, could fathom 
 the depth of ill - suppressed bitterness pervading all 
 
IN MANTUA DURING THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN WAR. 143 
 
 classes of the Lombard- Venetian provinces. We were 
 soon to be witnesses of the openly expressed hatred of 
 the people of Venice; the sullen endurance of the 
 Veronese, if unspoken, was none the less real. A 
 captain of Piedmontese cavalry told us that on the 
 day of the Austrian retreat, when his regiment entered 
 Milan with Victor Emmanuel and the French Emperor 
 at the head of the allied troops, the Milanese women 
 rushed out shedding tears of joy, and clasped their 
 arms round the legs of the fiery chargers, in their 
 wild delight trying to drag the men ofi" their saddles 
 so as to place food and wine and all they had to oflfer 
 before their deliverers. The young officer added that 
 none witnessed the scene unmoved, and it had touched 
 him more than any episode of a sanguinary campaign. 
 
 As we now entered the Austrian frontier station our 
 feelings were very mingled : we were obliged to be 
 circumspect, and one of us could confess to no little 
 awe and much of that sentiment which the Italians 
 expressively term antipatia. As was to be expected, 
 our Bolognese professor was the first difficulty, and 
 for some time the authorities could not satisfy them- 
 selves as to the validity of his passport. Their sus- 
 picions were roused, and he was summoned before 
 the assembled officials, who subjected him to a sharp 
 cross-examination, and did not believe in a rather 
 risky journey undertaken to see a few fossils. After 
 what seemed an interminable delay, he came out with 
 a police permit good for so many days at Venice, with 
 strict injunctions to report himself at the police office 
 immediately on arrival there. Considering all the cir- 
 cumstances, one can well forgive their vigilance. We 
 two sisters had not stirred from the carriage, and 
 having deputed a vicarious explanation of our identity, 
 
144 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 the chief — a close- cropped German — and his secretary 
 — a swarthy, ill -looking southerner — came out and 
 severally inspected us. Each thrust his head in at the 
 carriage window to make his own observations, and to 
 ascertain if the passports tallied with the individuals. 
 The secretary did not seem satisfied, but made no 
 remark; he only eyed us doubtfully and cast furtive 
 glances at the two vacant seats, as if he smelt gun- 
 powder, or thought some contraband of war was con- 
 cealed beneath the cushions ! He and his chief were per- 
 plexed, and looked, as we Scots say, " raised " — another 
 word for excited in an angry sense — but there was no in- 
 civility. Four travellers seeking admittance to Mantua 
 for mere pleasure, and two of them ladies, was so much 
 out of the range of their ordinary experience as to take 
 their breath away ! and it was only natural that the 
 officials should deliberate before giving us the necessary 
 permission to pass their lines. Finally, the chief official 
 suddenly discovered that the passports of the three 
 British subjects were correctly en regie, and that no 
 objection could be sustained against them. We were 
 told to proceed, and perhaps as an act of grace to 
 atone for the irksome detention, our baggage was allowed 
 to pass unopened. 
 
 The condition of the soil to the river's edge might 
 alone have suggested a military occupation, as much 
 as did the neglected strip of debatable territory between 
 the two sentinel-posts. Strange that the few scattered 
 vines running wild in that no-man's-land should still 
 be green and fresh in one's garden of memory ! 
 
 A ferry-boat took us — carriage and all — across the 
 muddy waters of the Po, when we had a glimpse of 
 earthworks thrown up on its northern bank, dotted 
 at intervals with small loopholed and circular forts. 
 
IN MANTUA DURING THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN WAR. 145 
 
 The ferry-boat was manned by tall Teutons with red 
 sun-blistered faces, whose heads, almost shorn of sandy 
 hair, were but partially covered by tight foraging-caps. 
 We had stepped suddenly among an alien race, whose 
 conscious air of authority let us know that they were 
 the masters. Throughout the expedition we found them 
 perfectly civil, and never had to complain of any want 
 of courtesy. 
 
 The plain became less and less fertile as we distanced 
 the turbid Po and approached the more tranquil Mincio. 
 The bard of Mantua, in singing of her " verdant plain," 
 tells us that " the great Mincius winds in slow meanders, 
 and hath fringed the banks with tender reed." The 
 thinner crops were to be accounted for as the desolating 
 effect of recent warfare, and not from any degeneracy in 
 a soil always rich and alluvial. Only one village was 
 passed, which swarmed with Austrian soldiery, and our 
 driver urged on the horses over the flat dusty road, 
 knowing well that should the fortress gate not be reached 
 by sunset we should all be left benighted in that wild 
 and depopulated region. 
 
 When at last the mass of strong battlements and 
 towers rose clear before our straining eyes, the sight 
 was indeed one worthy of " Mantova la Gloriosa." But 
 its distance sadly deceived us, and the long day's journey 
 was not yet over. Mantua, although not on elevated 
 ground, is seen many miles off in the surrounding plain, 
 and when we reached the reedy margin of the lagoons 
 encompassing the city, we were obliged to make a round 
 of several miles to gain the causeway leading to the 
 only gate allowed to serve for ingress and egress since 
 the beginning of the war. That last hour's ride was a 
 memorable one : with his watch in his hand our chief 
 kept count of the minutes, the still, sedgy lakes and the 
 
 K 
 
146 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 frowning ramparts with their deepening shadows fur- 
 nishing no lively distraction of thought. How silent 
 we all were ! The weird picturesqueness of the approach 
 can hardly be delineated. Sheer out of the water rose 
 the walls, massive and grand, darkening in the dying 
 light, while the elevated points of campaniles and towers 
 were burnished by the shafts of a glorious sunset. There 
 was no movement of air to stir the reeds and bulrushes 
 bordering the lagoons, bordering as they did in Virgil's 
 time, when "marsh with slimy rushes overspread all 
 the pasture-grounds." The stillness was absolute : the 
 reeds neither rustled nor murmured. We had never 
 approached a city that could be likened to this. 
 
 Happily for us, our fears were not realised. We were 
 in time, though only just in time, and it was with a 
 feeling of relief that we crossed the resounding draw- 
 bridges, over moats of stagnant water, passing now and 
 again under archways tunnelled through mounted forts 
 — over one more drawbridge, and on through nameless 
 blocks of masonry. 
 
 And how about hotels ? I for one had misgivings 
 that we should not find one open. In this respect, 
 however, we were again fortunate, and although the 
 two hotels which stood opposite to each other in the 
 principal street were shuttered and blinded, the arrival 
 of a carriage with forestieri from the Italian side made 
 no little sensation : in an instant doors were flung open 
 and shutters unclosed to make us welcome. We, tired 
 and dusty travellers, were soon seated at a comfortably 
 improvised table, our dinner enlivened by the garrulous 
 waiter, who in breathless haste began to expatiate on 
 the vicissitudes of his native Mantua. He broke into 
 loud complaints of the despotism of imperial rule, and 
 exclaimed that a word spoken on this topic might lead 
 
IN MANTUA DURING THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN WAR. 147 
 
 to instant arrest and imprisonment, as police spies fol- 
 lowed at a man's heels, noiseless and inseparable as his 
 shadow. We were obliged to silence the impulsive 
 Italian, who by way of illustration of his subject had 
 pointed to the wall, indicating with gestures that there 
 might be eavesdroppers beyond to report him on the 
 morrow ! 
 
 Next morning, though the sun rose with fierce power, 
 we were determined to lose no time, and started early 
 in an open carriage so as to gain a general idea of the 
 city, and if possible get a glimpse of those wonderful 
 fortifications. We made first for the great deserted 
 square, the Piazza S. Pietro, where we had a view of 
 the machicolated abutments of the Palazzo Imperiale, 
 which was really the old palace of the Gonzaga family, 
 " who governed the city in her ducal and palmy days, 
 when her Court was one of the most brilliant in Italy." 
 Its exterior and that of the other public buildings and 
 palaces were grand and imposing, though all were more 
 or less mouldering from the touch of time, and in- 
 expressibly gloomy from the pervading silence and 
 desertion. There were no citizens about — all the noble 
 families had fled, and we could not help drawing com- 
 parisons between the glorious city of former centuries 
 and the sad captive city which we beheld. 
 
 Our uncle and the professor, versed in classical lore, 
 were desirous of seeing the famous Trojan frescoes of 
 Giulio Romano (whose works are nowhere exhibited so 
 well as in Mantua), and alighted for the purpose, whilst 
 we others drew up in a shady corner of the piazza and 
 listened to the comments of our driver on the hapless 
 fate of his city. There was so much to be compressed 
 into that one day that we deliberately declined to see 
 those masterpieces of Giulio Romano, of Mantegna, and 
 
148 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 of others, reserving them for some day in the dim 
 future, and preferring to glean as much as was possible 
 of the then existing conditions of life within those 
 walls. We had, in truth, no heart for pictures. It 
 was as if the din of battle haunted our ears : would 
 not the truce end in two short weeks, when that mortal 
 struggle was due to recommence ? The priceless works 
 of art, the unique buildings, and above all the over- 
 shadowing presence of the poet — what were they all 
 in view of those impending issues of life and death? 
 Perhaps the extreme heat kept the Mantuans all 
 indoors, whilst we unconsciously furnished an illus- 
 tration of the common Italian proverb, that only dogs 
 and English expose themselves to a scorching sun. 
 While waiting for our companions, only one straggler 
 crossed the piazza. This was a priest, and his ap- 
 pearance was the signal for an outburst of lamenta- 
 tions and invectives on the part of the driver, who 
 accused *' I preti e gli Austriaci" of being the authors 
 of all the existing misery and desolation. He hissed 
 out the words between clenched teeth, shaking his 
 fist at the unconscious (?) priest, who was barely out 
 of hearing : then his passion subsiding into grief, the 
 excitable Italian quieted himself by repeating over and 
 over in a subdued monotone the melancholy words, 
 **Mantova h morta, e morta." And in fact it could 
 only be compared to a city of the dead. We drove 
 on through streets grass-grown and more gloomy than 
 those of Eavenna : there it was the decay of ancient 
 empire ; in Mantua were superadded the voluntary 
 exile of every noble family, and the ill - concealed 
 aversion of the helpless citizens to foreign rule. All 
 signs of life and activity seemed merged in the cen- 
 tral thoroughfare where the hotels stood ; few soldiers 
 
IN MANTUA DURING TfiE AUSTRO-ITALIAN WAR. 149 
 
 were out, and we passed nothing but rows of blinded 
 windows, with here and there a palace serving as a 
 magazine for sacks of flour and other army stores, 
 the fortress being then provisioned for two years for 
 its garrison of 7000 men. Skirting the city wall, we 
 found ourselves in what had once been a fine street : 
 here we pulled up to reassure ourselves of the fact — 
 two sheep feeding on the grass -grown pavement — 
 a man in charge of them ! There was grass — grass 
 everywhere. 
 
 Our coachman having had directions to drive to all 
 the points of interest, next took us to one of the 
 ponderous closed gates, where stood a curtained van 
 in which there was a Mantuan in fetters. Close to it 
 were his two unsaddled horses : their owner had that 
 day attempted to escape with them to Piedmont, and 
 had actually reached the frontier, when he was inter- 
 cepted and brought back in irons. Military law for- 
 bade the export or withdrawal of horses, and we 
 shuddered to think of the punishment that might 
 await the unhappy ofi'ender. If despair was ever 
 written on a face, it was written on his, and it 
 comes back to one even at this far-distant day. 
 
 The Austrians naturally discouraged the circulation 
 of any map or chart that would make public their 
 plan of defence, and nothing could be obtained as a 
 guide. In utter ignorance we were soon guilty of tres- 
 passing on forbidden ground. Forgetting our driver's 
 enmity to the " Austriaci," we trusted to his discretion, 
 and he drove us along the line of ramparts up to a 
 cluster of gun-mounted towers which commanded one 
 of the closed gates. Here we passed under an archway 
 leading to an open court, which was scarcely gained 
 when we were challenged by a soldier on guard, who 
 
150 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 rushed out shouting to us to stop, and signalling to 
 the driver to pull the horses' heads round. He became 
 livid with anger, but did not lose the power of speech, 
 which he launched in a volley at the driver, who 
 feigned guileless innocence : the latter had evidently 
 led us there with intent to irritate, as no citizen could 
 have been ignorant of the secrecy enforced at the works 
 and fortified gates. The sentinel, somewhat mollified 
 by our protests, was joined by another more violent 
 than he, who in a voice pitched to terrorise shouted 
 to us that none but the officer in command dare pass 
 by that way. After a consultation between them we 
 were, however, allowed to withdraw, muttered impre- 
 cations following our gratified driver. 
 
 As the chief of our party remarked with emphasis, 
 this incident might have had a very awkward ending. 
 It reminded him of an adventure a few years before, 
 when in the district of Como (which was at that time 
 held by the Austrians) he, a peaceful traveller, was 
 " detained " for some hours as a spy. After a minute 
 examination of all the letters and papers on his person, 
 most fortunately a note was found among them from 
 his old friend. Baron von Hugel, for some time Aus- 
 trian Ambassador at Florence. But for that note there 
 was nothing for him but imprisonment until his iden- 
 tity could be proved ; its discovery procured his instant 
 release. 
 
 To avoid any other scrape, we next tried to obtain 
 a view of the fortifications from the outside, and for 
 that purpose traversed the series of drawbridges and 
 the long causeway, taking the direction of the railway 
 station, which was about a mile distant. The towers 
 and walls seemed to all of us to be in the highest 
 state of efficiency, the strongest forts looking as new 
 
IN MANTUA DURING THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN WAR. 151 
 
 as if the engineers had only just built them. The 
 country round was very flat, and would have been de- 
 void of interest were it not hallowed by the memories 
 of that 
 
 "Anima cortese Mantovana 
 Di cui la fama ancor nel mondo dura, 
 E durera quanto il mondo lontana." ^ 
 
 The name of Virgil will illumine Mantua when her 
 glory as a great stronghold of the nineteenth century 
 will have passed away. Our indefinite plan to make 
 a pilgrimage to Andes, reputed to have been the place 
 of his birth, was not carried out. The ancient village 
 is now identified with the modern Pietola ; but it was 
 a few miles outside the walls, and, to use the bard's 
 own words, we found ourselves " scorched with raging 
 heat." We were curiously verifying in our brief ex- 
 perience the conditions that he recorded in his verse. 
 
 On our entrance the previous evening we had all 
 been too much preoccupied with the stern aspect of 
 the fortress to pay much heed to the evident unhealthi- 
 ness of its situation. Mantua, as we saw it, stood on 
 a continuous series of artificial lakes, filled by the 
 waters of the Mincio. When in possession of the 
 French, these had been drained with a view to im- 
 prove the health of the place; but after a time the 
 dams and embankments had been swept away, and the 
 Mincio was allowed to spread over its old ground. 
 Was it very difi*erent from what it had been before 
 the Christian era, when we are told that "the over- 
 flowing river bursts from its banks away and over- 
 spreads all around with slimy mud, whence the hollow 
 
 * " Courteous shade of Mantua ! thou whose fame 
 Yet lives, and shall live long as nature lasts ! " 
 
 — In the Rev. H. F. Gary's translation. 
 
152 JOURNEYS IN FRANCE AND ITALY. 
 
 dikes sweat with fetid vapour " ? How clearly the poet 
 painted from Nature ! 
 
 The heat and glare and dust became so oppressive 
 that the carriage hood and a couple of umbrellas gave 
 little protection, and after seeing two of the largest 
 churches, where we found one or two tneeling women, 
 we were all thankful to go straight to the hotel, and 
 were compelled by the extraordinary temperature to 
 keep under shelter of a roof for the remainder of the 
 day. We had never experienced such heat in Italy, 
 not even in midsummer. 
 
 The quiet of the evening was broken by sounds very 
 audible from the range of open windows ; the heavy 
 tramp of an army and the clank of officers' swords 
 soon made themselves distinct. A sea of soldiers came 
 surging up, not in military rank and file, but in knots 
 of twos and threes, the wearer of a brilliant uniform 
 consorting with a fellow-soldier whose facings indicated 
 a difierent regiment. They were magnificent soldiers ; 
 all above the average height, muscular, and in clothing 
 admirably adapted for the climate, hundreds of privates 
 being in suits of white "jean" or linen or other 
 hempen manufacture, faced with crimson, blue, green, 
 or most commonly yellow. From the length of time 
 they took to defile, the garrison must have turned 
 out in a body. Croats and Czechs joined with Sclavs 
 and other races owning allegiance to Austria ; naturally 
 no Italians mingled with the crowd, and among all 
 these thousands we noted only a few Hungarian 
 hussars, remarkable by their peculiar hats and light 
 blue uniform elaborately embroidered in white and 
 silver. It was significant that then Hungarians had 
 been withdrawn from service in Italy, as being in 
 
IN MANTUA DURING THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN WAR. 153 
 
 too close sympathy with the Italians — at least, such 
 was the current report. 
 
 We could not disguise our admiration for the superb 
 appearance and appointments of those Austrian troops. 
 It being a festa, the men were on their way to the 
 ipieizzsi to listen to the music of two of their unrivalled 
 bands, whilst dark -eyed Mantuans crouched in the 
 gateways, casting looks of sickening depression and 
 despair at their masters, who strode haughtily on 
 with real or affected indifference. 
 
 It had been arranged that we should take the first 
 train next morning to Verona, and we all breathed 
 more freely to find ourselves at the railway station — 
 out, and well out, of the armour-clad fortress. 
 
II. 
 
 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY 
 AND HISTORY 
 
THE BANKS OF THE FINDHOEN. 
 
 It has often been remarked that the ravines which 
 score the surface of Scotland are the physical features 
 to which that country owes nearly as much as to her 
 blue mountains and lakes, in that they confer pictur- 
 esqueness and beauty on tracts that otherwise would be 
 bleak and unattractive. We now attempt to jot down 
 a few recollections of a very remarkable river-ravine 
 which should be better known. It is that of a High- 
 land stream which has cut a channel for itself through 
 the old gneisses and the sandstones, grey and red, of 
 the province of Moray, — one, however, of the most 
 fertile, if not the most fertile, of all the Scottish 
 counties, with a climate, in spite of its northern lati- 
 tude, exceptionally fine. 
 
 The river to which we wish to direct attention is the 
 Findhorn, that about a mile and a half to the west of 
 the town of Forres sweeps through the plain before 
 reaching the sandy shores of the bay of its own name. 
 For the last seventy years this river has been compara- 
 tively tranquil, and has kept pretty well in its channel, 
 since occasional '* spates" do not appear to have worked 
 much destruction. But tales of " the flood of '29 " are 
 still handed down from father to son, and will con- 
 tinue to be handed down to children yet unborn. 
 At the narrow gorge known as "Kandolph's Bridge," 
 some eight miles above Forres, the Findhorn, when at 
 
158 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 its normal height, rushes with its whole volume at a 
 great depth through a cleft in the rocks only eight feet 
 wide. Yet, according to Sir Thomas Dick Lauder,^ 
 during the memorable rise of this river in 1829 "the 
 inundation covered a space of something more than 
 twenty square miles in the plain of Forres." The 
 authority of this author has never to our knowledge 
 been questioned, and the statement is given in italics 
 in his fascinating volume on the floods of Moray. 
 He relates how the river rose to a height of 50 feet, 
 and that ''the waves, at this meeting of the waters" 
 (of the Findhorn and the Divie), " were terrific, tossing 
 themselves 20 feet into the air, and throwing up the 
 drift trees and other bodies to a great height." There 
 was enormous loss of land and of property of all kinds, 
 and incidents of hairbreadth escapes of the terrified 
 inhabitants from isolated cottages, who in most cases 
 were found clinging to their chimneys and roofs, 
 furnish to this day exciting tales for many an ingle- 
 nook. Finally, the voyage of five sailing-boats from 
 the seaport of Findhorn, manned by salmon-fishermen, 
 and, headed by the Nancy, sailed over hedges, dykes, 
 and meadows to Forres — over a great seething inland 
 lake. It was at the risk of life that this mission was 
 undertaken : the boats were often nearly capsized in 
 the swirling current, their greatest danger being from 
 drifting trees, drowned cattle, and other heavy wreck- 
 age running foul of them. One cannot read the simple 
 record of the log-book of the Nancy without admiration 
 for the fishermen of Findhorn. 
 
 For a comprehensive account of the havoc caused by 
 
 1 An Account of the Great Floods of August 1829 in the Province of 
 Moray and adjoining Districts. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1830. See pp. 101, 
 157. A third edition was published at Elgin, 1873. 
 
THE BANKS OF THE FINDHORN. 159 
 
 " the flood " in Morayshire we cannot do better than 
 cite that given by a great living writer.^ 
 
 Before quitting the subject of river-action I would refer to 
 the magnitude of the effects of a single great rain-storm, as 
 illustrated by one of the most memorable examples ever experi- 
 enced in Scotland — the famous Morayshire floods of the year 
 1829. There had been a season of unusually hot weather during 
 the summer, and this was followed in the first week of August 
 by such a downpour of rain as does not seem ever to have been 
 equalled within historic times. The suddenness with which the 
 waters rose, the great size the streams attained, and the un- 
 usual lengtli of time that the * spate ' endured, combined to work 
 an altogether unprecedented amount of havoc in all the rivers 
 descending from the northern flank of the Grampians through 
 the counties of Nairn, Moray, and Banff. In some of the narrow 
 gorges the streams rose forty or fifty feet above their normal 
 level, and such was the force with which the swollen waters 
 rushed along that well-built stone bridges were swept away, 
 sometimes in one solid mass that shot down the flood for some 
 yards before it went to pieces. Hundreds of acres of fertile 
 land were torn up and their soil carried to the sea. Banks of 
 clay forty feet or more in height were cut into, and huge slices 
 of them sank into the rivers and were soon demolished. 
 
 Our object, however, is not to talk about the 
 devastations of the Findhorn, but to say a few words 
 about its surpassing beauty. It has often appeared 
 strange to us that this, the loveliest of our Scottish 
 rivers, should be so little known beyond its own im- 
 mediate district, and should be so little visited. One 
 can readily understand that before the days of railways 
 it was difficult of access, but now that there is a station 
 at Forres on the Highland Eailway, and another at 
 Dunphail, a stone's-throw, so to speak, from the river 
 and its scenery, that old difficulty has been removed. ^ 
 
 * Sir Archibald Geikie, ' The Scenery of Scotland viewed in connection 
 with its Physical Geology,' 2nd edit., 1887, p. 31. 
 
160 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 In size the Findhorn is nothing remarkable, its 
 length in a direct line from source to shore being 
 something over sixty miles, while its actual course, 
 including its many windings and curves, is estimated 
 to be about ninety. It has neither the length nor 
 breadth nor the majestic flow of its near neighbour the 
 Spey, nor can it be compared in size with the Dee, the 
 Tay, and the Tweed. It is the river of black salmon- 
 pools and foaming waterfalls, of wild '' spates " or 
 floods, and, we need hardly say, is not navigable. 
 Yet although only a Highland stream, to our mind it 
 ranks in beauty before all others, and St John, in his 
 'Wild Sports of the Highlands,' aptly describes it as 
 ** the rapid and glorious Findhorn, the very perfection 
 of a Highland river." It is known to working geolo- 
 gists, who hold it as a grand example of the excavat- 
 ing power of running water ; a few artists have found 
 it out; and sportsmen, keen in pursuit of game, may 
 have followed it from its rise in the far-away bleak 
 morass of one of the Monadhliath mountains of Inver- 
 ness-shire down to its outflow in the Moray Firth. 
 But the world at large knows nothing of it, and 
 tourists are little likely to penetrate to that high 
 inaccessible region over which the frequent storm- 
 clouds gather and break. 
 
 As a brawling brooklet it runs down " o'er the muir 
 amang the heather," gathering in strength and velocity 
 as, fed by every side rill, it dashes onward, never a 
 sedate and gentle streamlet, but almost from its birth 
 showing a character of wilful impetuosity. Its course in 
 its upper section is wild and picturesque — often between 
 high hills, their slopes covered with close short herbage, 
 and often between bare rocks. Through a wonderful 
 narrow granite gorge it enters the green vale of the 
 
THE BANKS OF THE FINDHORN. 161 
 
 Streens as a good-sized stream, which in the flood of '29 
 was formidable enough to strike terror into the hearts of 
 the few inhabitants. But this district of the Findhorn, 
 the haunt of grouse and red-deer, and also its next 
 lower section tenanted by the roebuck and blackcock, 
 although eminently romantic, cannot claim to show the 
 scenery which makes the river so noteworthy. The 
 famous scenery begins a few miles above Dunphail, and 
 extends to within four miles of Forres, each bend of the 
 river, each section of its banks, more beautiful than the 
 other. At several points the cliffs are sheer, crowned 
 with foliage, while in a lower stretch the Findhorn 
 flings itself headlong over ledges of rock into a series 
 of dark salmon-pools, each bank showing a variety and 
 luxuriance of foliage hardly to be looked for in the 
 far-away north. Now weeping -birches are in the 
 ascendant, and clothe in graceful clinging forms the 
 precipitous crags ; now red-limbed Scotch firs stand out 
 straight and sturdy amongst a thicket of larch and 
 beech and bird -cherry, while holly and mountain-ash 
 seek roothold in every possible crevice and cleft. Here 
 the prominent feature is a group of splendid beeches, 
 but above all the brilliant red of the wild cherry in 
 autumn stands out with telling pictorial efi'ect amongst 
 the fading leafage. The dark fir forests, which form 
 the grand background, throw out in distinct relief the 
 deciduous foliage, where every tree shows its own 
 individual habit and tint. And who can ever forget 
 the pervading glow and scent of the purple heather ! 
 
 A sketch lies before us of a portion of the right bank, 
 which dips down to nearly ordinary water-level, where 
 a lordly oak overshadows a mossy dell. In this well- 
 remembered spot two great boulders lie at the foot of 
 the steep height, flanking this exquisite glade, which 
 
162 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 serves as a fostering hollow for rare and tender ferns, 
 and where neither summer sun nor summer rain can 
 penetrate. The slope is faced with a thicket of tall 
 juniper-bushes and a tangle of bramble, intermingled 
 with blaeberries and cranberries, and another fruit less 
 abundant, which we children, being in want of a dis- 
 tinctive name, dubbed as " deer-berries," but which we 
 have little doubt were the common cloud - berries. 
 These may be identical with the " clowdesberry," 
 which Camden speaks of as growing plentifully on the 
 boggy tops of mountains in England and Scotland, and 
 especially in Norway. " The Northern Peasants call it 
 Cnoutberry, and have a tradition that the Danish King 
 Knute, being distressed for some time in these wasts, was 
 reliev'd by feeding upon these dainties." 
 
 Those who know the Findhorn at its best are the 
 anglers who have unlimited time at their command, 
 and who scramble down to the water s edge, and wait 
 in patience for the cast of their lines in the peaty pools. 
 None know better than they how black these pools can 
 be. An old friend, whose cottage was perched on a 
 rocky platform overlooking the stream, used to declare 
 that its most fitting name was " Inkhorn," and not 
 Findhorn. Men fishing for salmon stand and watch 
 for the curious sight of the fish making its way up 
 against the current, leaping up a foaming waterfall from 
 one of these dark pools up to another. It is most 
 strange to see a salmon, bafiled in the first attempt, 
 leap and leap until it has attained its object. How 
 marvellous the instinct that guides it ! Has it ever 
 been, or can it ever be, explained? 
 
 The headlong impetuosity of the Findhorn is main- 
 tained throughout many miles of this richly wooded 
 wilderness. Sometimes whirling in curves round birch- 
 
THE BANKS OF THE FINDHORN. 163 
 
 clad cliffs, or rushing between rocks grey in tint at one 
 point, and at another between upright walls of yellow 
 or warm red sandstones, or at the foot of marvellous 
 precipices of pink granite, its torrent-like character is 
 ever the same. Where it emerges from the woods and 
 rocks and streams into the open, the view of this later 
 stage of its career is magnificent. In the immediate 
 foreground are the forests of Darnaway and Altyre, 
 through which it sweeps down across the most fertile 
 of plains, dotted with meadows and trees and houses, 
 its coast-line on the near shore of the firth defined by 
 gleaming white sandhills, while on the farther coast of 
 the blue sea are the bold Sutors of Cromarty, with the 
 mountainous peaks of Eoss, Sutherland, and Caithness 
 in the dim distance. Most heartily we endorse the 
 opinion of Mr St John, that "it is worth all the trouble 
 of a voyage from London to see this view alone." 
 
 Lest we should be thought excessive in our praise of 
 " the river," let us adduce the testimony of two friends 
 who had explored its banks, but who, alas ! are no 
 longer with us to speak for themselves. 
 
 One was Dr Carpenter, the distinguished naturalist, 
 who with Mrs Carpenter came to us for a few days on 
 their return from a tour in Scotland. They had stayed 
 at Forres, and thence had made several excursions to the 
 banks of the Findhorn, the beauty of which had taken 
 them by surprise. Those who knew Dr Carpenter will 
 remember his conversational powers, and that he talked 
 — and talked well. As a rule, men of science are chary 
 of superlatives ; but on this subject words were not 
 measured, and Dr Carpenter gave expression to his 
 unbounded admiration for the scenery and its efi'ect 
 upon him in almost indignant terms, an opinion shared 
 by his wife. His repeated exclamations were, '* It's not 
 
164 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 known ! No one has ever heard of it ! There's nothing 
 equal to it!" Surely "the river" was praised to our 
 heart's content. 
 
 Again at Oxford, in spending an evening with Jowett, 
 the lamented Master of Balliol, when he had a houseful 
 of guests, it happened after adjournment from the 
 dinner-table that we were seated beside him in the 
 drawing-room. In spite of his uniform kindness, we 
 had up to that time stood somewhat in awe of one who 
 was so much looked up to by his fellow-men, and who 
 was, as it were, placed upon a pedestal. He was on 
 this particular evening in the mood for a chat, and 
 gladly we listened. The conversation turned upon the 
 finest scenery of our own country, and that it challenged 
 comparison with much that travellers went abroad and 
 far to see, when the Master startled us by saying that 
 the most beautiful river scenery to his mind in Great 
 Britain was that of a river in the north of Scotland. 
 " There is nothing in my opinion equal to it. It is 
 the Findhorn in Morayshire. But you are Scotch, you 
 
 may probably know it ? " 
 
 The words came out in his usual short, crisp sentences. 
 The river ! We had been born and bred on its shore, 
 
 and when this was proudly owned to our host there was 
 
 an end to all our far-offishness and awe. Our host was 
 
 no longer the formidable Don, and while he discoursed 
 
 to our delight on its features, he felt that he had a 
 
 listener in full sympathy. 
 
 " We have nothing equal to it in Great Britain ! " 
 
 was his summary and repeated exclamation. There was 
 
 no hesitancy in his opinon. 
 
 " The Wye is very beautiful," we haltingly suggested, 
 
 " very lovely and peaceful, but it has not banks like our 
 
 Findhorn." 
 
THE BANKS OF THE FINDHORN. 165 
 
 On this point we were perfectly at one, and the 
 remembrance of that evening and that conversation 
 can never be effaced. 
 
 One favourite spot has undergone a change, since it 
 can no longer show the animated scene which it pre- 
 sented in days of old. This was "the heronry"; but 
 at present it is only so in name, for, with the exception 
 of a single pair which arrives every year at nesting- 
 time, their old haunt is forsaken by the long-craiged 
 herons. They used to congregate in great numbers in 
 this sequestered spot on the left bank of " the river," 
 and built their nests in a grove of tall trees which grew 
 close down by the water's edge. Behind this bird- 
 colony was the green mead of St John, while the 
 opposite bank rose sheer to a height of ninety feet 
 above the stream. The trees inhabited by the herons 
 were like so many dead skeletons bereft of their leaves, 
 and it was fine sport for us children to stand on the 
 path which runs along the high overhanging bank and 
 persuade the owners of hands and arms stronger than 
 ours to throw stones down from this height among the 
 herons, when a cloud of angry and noisy birds rose up 
 from the nest-laden trees. Have too many stones been 
 thrown? or have the rooks and jackdaws, which had 
 established a large settlement close to the heronry, 
 devoured all the herons' eggs ? Besides these 
 marauders, it is known that the noble birds prey on 
 the food of the salmon, and are therefore detested by 
 the salmon-fishermen, who would be loath to leave them 
 in peace. 
 
 Apart from its varied natural history, the Findhorn 
 is rich in human interest, and is pre-eminently the 
 river of romance. How its scenes and their legends 
 appeal to the imagination ! What tales could not its 
 
166 STCJDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 cliiFs and glens and dells reveal of bygone times ! 
 What section of those, lovely banks is without its 
 own story — true or traditional ! The traditions which 
 cling to its caves and heights are often grim and 
 gruesome, telling of bravery and endurance, yet more 
 often of cruelty and vengeance. Many of them recount 
 incidents in the incessant warfare waged between the 
 rival clans — the Comyns on the right bank and the 
 Stewarts on the left. In '' the battle of the lost 
 Standard," which was fought between the two clans 
 at Kandolph's Bridge, Earl Eandolph the Kegent led 
 his own men, while the Comyns were commanded by 
 Alister Bane, son of their chief. After a sanguinary 
 struggle, when the Comyns made a gallant defence, 
 their position became desperate, and Alister, seeing 
 that they were almost surrounded, flung his standard 
 across the narrow gorge, and crying out, " Let the 
 bravest keep it I " he paralysed his enemies by leap- 
 ing over the abyss, and cut a way through the thickest 
 of them. Although Alister made good his escape, it 
 was only to meet his fate later in a more terrible 
 form. 
 
 The Cave of Slaginnan (in Gaelic, Sloch-nan-cean), 
 the cave of the headless Comyns, tells its story by its 
 very name. It was there that Alister took refuge 
 after " the battle of the lost Standard," but his hiding- 
 place was revealed by the treachery of one of his own 
 followers who bore him a grudge. Sir Thomas Dick 
 Lauder's version of the tragedy is the popular one, 
 and, we fear, " ower true " : we can only give it in 
 brief. The entrance to the cave was so narrow that 
 only one man could descend at a time, and it was 
 certain death to him who should make the attempt. 
 Alister was therefore called upon to surrender. '' Let 
 
THE BANKS OF THE FINDHORN. 167 
 
 me but come out," was his defiant answer, "and with 
 my back at that craig, I will live or die like a 
 Comyn ! " For reply, brushwood was thrust down 
 the hole, heap after heap of it, and set on fire as it 
 was pushed in. His struggles to force a way up 
 through the flaming mass were useless. His enemies 
 swarmed round the hole, and when they considered 
 that a sufficient quantity of burning brushwood had 
 been thrust down to suffocate the unfortunate Comyns, 
 stones were rolled over the mouth of the cave. They 
 were all found dead, Alister Bane reclining in one 
 corner, his head wrapped in his plaid, with his men 
 around him. Not satisfied with this, the bodies were 
 beheaded, and the heads of the dead men were one 
 by one thrown into the fortress, which was defended 
 by Alister's father. The old man wept as he kissed 
 the fair head of his son — so runs the pitiful story. 
 This tragedy finds confirmation in the fact that towards 
 the end of the eighteenth century, when a green mound 
 was opened at Dunphail with a view to enlarging the 
 garden, five or six rude stone coffins were found, each 
 containing a headless skeleton. 
 
 Another story, less painful, is told of the luckless 
 lady who, like Lord Ullin's daughter, fled with her 
 lover. Her father was the chieftain of the country, 
 while her lover was a Dane. Mounted together on 
 the same horse, they were pursued by her father and 
 his men, and the lovers in attempting to ford the 
 Findhorn were both drowned. They lie buried in 
 one grave in the greenest of holms near Ferness. 
 
 A secluded stronghold within the district of "the 
 river," but which has long been in ruins, has always 
 had a peculiar attraction for us. This is the wild 
 Lochindorb and its castle, which at a remote date 
 
168 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 was one of the royal fortresses of Scotland. The earliest 
 reliable record that we can find of it goes as far back 
 as 1230, when a Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, made this 
 fortified castle his home. It stood upon an island in 
 the loch less than an acre in extent, and was approached 
 by boats, the loch itself being about two miles long 
 and at its greatest width about three- fourths of a mile. 
 The Dorbock river is the outlet for the waters of 
 Lochindorb, and after its junction with the Divie 
 they enter the Findhorn below Kelugas at a point 
 which was one of the most notable scenes of disaster in 
 the floods of 1829. Lochindorb is bare and bleak and 
 dreary, its shores being low moorlands which gradually 
 rise as they merge in the forests or stretch to the foot of 
 the hills. Its insulated castle was occupied for a time 
 by Edward L, who found it a convenient centre for 
 his army to overrun the surrounding district. He 
 halted at Lochindorb after a sojourn of nearly three 
 weeks at the Abbey of Kinloss, where the Cistercian 
 monks entertained him sumptuously. Lochindorb had 
 a special attraction for the king, who, with his English 
 deer-hounds and wolf-hounds, found exciting sport in 
 stalking the red -deer and in wolf- hunts in the great 
 fir forests which then nearly covered the Lochindorb 
 country. He has the credit of having strengthened 
 the defences of the castle, if he did not entirely 
 rebuild it. 
 
 Again Lochindorb comes into notice in the reign of 
 Edward III. The widowed Countess of AthoU was be- 
 sieged in it with her infant son by Sir Andrew Moray, 
 when Edward, hearing of her anxious position, marched 
 from iPerth with a huge army to her rescue. He raised 
 the siege. Sir Andrew Moray escaping by the narrow 
 pass of the Findhorn to Darnaway Castle, while Lady 
 
THE BANKS OF THE FINDHORN. 169 
 
 AthoU, only too thankful to be released with her child, 
 accompanied Edward to England. 
 
 Lochindorb has seen so many changes and had so 
 many masters — coming in view in one century, dis- 
 appearing in the next, to reappear in another — that 
 we shall only refer to it when it was in occupation 
 of Alexander, fourth son of Robert II., who was 
 created Earl of Buchan, but was best known as the 
 *•' Wolf of Badenoch." As Lord of Badenoch he 
 seized upon the Church lands, and was excommuni- 
 cated by the Bishop of Moray from the ** Holy 
 Mother Church, to be cut off like a rotten and 
 diseased branch, to fall headlong into the pit, there 
 to be consumed by eternal fire." The unfortunate 
 monk who was the bearer of this document was at 
 once ordered by the excommunicated " Wolf " to be 
 lowered into the water-pit vault, and to be kept in 
 it some hours. This dungeon was so far below the 
 level of the loch that three feet of water stood per- 
 manently in it. The only entrance was a narrow 
 aperture in the courtyard covered by a stone, and 
 we are not told of any inlet or outlet for air. A 
 prisoner could only stand in this watery dungeon, — 
 any other posture would have been immediate death. 
 It was well if the monk escaped with his life : he 
 was not likely again to be the bearer of documents 
 to " the Wolf of Badenoch." 
 
 The reprisals made by the " Wolf " are matters of 
 history. The inhabitants of Elgin were roused one 
 night from their first sleep by the clatter of horses' 
 feet as a band of armed horsemen from Lochindorb 
 rode down the street in the direction of the cathedral. 
 This was followed by a cry of " Fire ! fire ! The 
 *Wolf'! the 'WolfM" which was shouted from house 
 
170 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 to house, from street to street. The noble cathedral 
 was soon in flames ; the Church of St Giles, the 
 Maisondieu, and the houses of eighteen canons, were 
 in a few hours nothing but blackened ruins. The 
 exploits of this doughty son of a king would fill a 
 volume, but we must leave them and return to " the 
 river." 
 
 To those who live within reach of its banks the 
 Findhorn is a powerful personality : it is regarded as 
 instinct with life and vigour, and it is not too much 
 to say that its moods sway their lives. When it is 
 whispered that " She is coming down ! " the message 
 is borne as if in the air from cottage to cottage 
 within reach of her banks, and the dwellers therein 
 are summoned and warned, just as if the old beacon- 
 fires had been alight on the hills. After black clouds 
 and rain on the distant mountains anxious groups 
 wait and watch for the wall of water which in so 
 many hours later, in heavy spates, is due to come 
 roaring down like a great wave of the sea through a 
 district where there has been perhaps little or no 
 rain, and carrying all before it. There is admiration 
 as well as terror among the spectators at the sight of 
 this resistless force of nature, even when it is busy in 
 the work of destruction. The quiet murmur of "the 
 river" is less often heard than its rush and roar. 
 There is a graceful allusion to it, characteristic of 
 the writer, in the preface to Sir Thomas Dick 
 Lauder's * Scottish Eivers,' by the author of * Kab 
 and his Friends ' : " A river is an individual, a totum 
 quid, and evolves itself, its glen or dale or strath, 
 by a shaping spirit, and its own sweet, or it may 
 be its own fierce, will, like our author's romantic, 
 impassioned, Pindaric Findhorn." 
 
THE BANKS OF THE FINDHORN. 17 1 
 
 But the portion of the Findhorn which transcends 
 all other in pathetic interest is the range of white 
 sandhills that bank the southern shore of its bay, 
 guarding as it were the wide seaward entrance where 
 "the river" meets the sea. The sandhills of Culbin 
 extend nearly seven miles along the coast of the 
 firth, with a breadth of about two miles. They 
 cover the lost barony of Culbin, which dated back 
 to the twelfth century, and which, according to 
 popular belief, was overwhelmed by a sand -flood in 
 a night. Although the final catastrophe was the 
 work of a night, vast sand -mounds, during many 
 years, had been accumulating along the coast at 
 some distance to the west of Culbin, so that the 
 materials for the catastrophe were ready at hand, 
 and the end was sudden. The stealthy advance of 
 the sand dammed back the Findhorn, and drove it 
 eastward into its present channel, when, aided by 
 wind and tide, it overwhelmed the village, which 
 then stood west of the bar near the point where 
 "the river" formerly entered the firth. Previous to 
 1694 it had flowed along the northern boundary of 
 Culbin. The existing seaport of Findhorn is the 
 third survivor of the name, its predecessor (the 
 second Findhorn) having also been swept away by 
 inroads of the sea. In the burying of Culbin "the 
 river" had done its share, in carrying down the 
 sand from its areas of sandstone to the sea, which 
 in its turn, by the prevailing westerly currents of 
 the firth, threw up the sand [and the wind drifted 
 it] in mounds along the shore of the ill-fated lands. 
 
 In 1695 Alexander Kinnaird, on succeeding to the 
 estate, petitioned Parliament for exemption from 
 taxes, on the ground that encroachments from sand 
 
172 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 during the previous twenty years had rendered Cul- 
 bin valueless. 
 
 It is difficult to realise that so near our own times — 
 only two hundred years ago — this estate of 3600 acres, 
 known from the richness of its crops as the '* Granary 
 of Moray," was buried by a great sand-storm, with its 
 mansion-house and orchard, sixteen farms, its mill, and 
 the cottages of several crofters. Its church, which 
 stood on the borders of the estate, was among the 
 buried buildings. In spite of the threatening inroads 
 of the sand, the inhabitants clung to their dwellings 
 until the night came, when all fled for their lives — 
 never again to return to their old homes. These homes 
 were not to be seen on the morrow, nor have they ever 
 been seen since, nor has the site of mansion or farm- 
 house or cottage ever been traced. Twice during the 
 century which immediately followed, the branch of a 
 tree was laid bare by those shifting sands for a brief 
 term. One was that of a cherry, which showed leaves 
 and blossomed; the other was that of an apple-tree, 
 which, if we are to believe the popular report, blossomed 
 and bore fruit. Our own recollection carries us back to 
 a time when, near to what was supposed to be the out- 
 skirts of the estate, a glimpse was had of the pointed 
 gable of a dovecot, but it did not come into view a 
 second time. The sandhills are composed of the finest 
 white sand, their form and outline ever changing, the 
 valley of to-day being perhaps the hill of to-morrow. 
 As an instance of their incessant movement, we may 
 mention that many years ago a crew of foreign sailors 
 landed a cargo of spirits on the seaward coast of Culbin, 
 concealing it in the sand. On their return to remove it 
 they were unable to hit upon the spot, and no vestige 
 of it has ever been found. Has any other district in 
 
!T»" 
 
 THE BANKS OF THE FINDHORN. 173 
 
 Scotland so weird a history as that of the lost barony of 
 Culbin ? 
 
 To a tourist who ventures to traverse these sandhills 
 the journey will be toilsome and tedious. A still day 
 must be chosen with but little wind, for the sparse 
 growth of " bent " (the only herbage to be seen) is not 
 enough to stem the treacherous drift, and in any case 
 he will sink ankle -deep at every step. Should he 
 attempt to climb one of the lower hills (some of them 
 are nearly 120 feet in height) the view of the beautiful 
 bay of Findhorn will be a reward. If low tide, the 
 breeze will waft the sweet breath of the thrift which 
 edges the bay landward. Then, but for the strong 
 current of " the river " the bay will be almost bare, 
 dotted with flocks of gulls and the red-billed pickie- 
 tars ; while if in spring, the banks of the sand-dunes will 
 show a crowd of little folks who have been rowed over 
 in cobles from Findhorn, which, across the bay, shines 
 white and bright in the sunlight. The salmon-wear 
 is a prominent object : in olden days its enclosure was 
 formed of stakes wattled with brushwood ; now nets are 
 used to connect the stakes. This mode of catching the 
 salmon, which swim over and into the trap at high 
 water and are thus left caught in the enclosure when 
 the tide recedes, we are told by a quaint author, " is 
 supposed to have been the device of the brethren of the 
 abbey " (of Kinloss). 
 
 But in a storm when the wind blows hard no 
 pedestrian dare venture on the sandhills of Culbin. 
 Then no scene can be more desolate. The sand is in 
 too evident movement, undulating in ridges like billows 
 out at sea : the air is dense with it, as it enters eyes 
 and ears and nostrils, and one's clothing becomes per- 
 meated and weighted with sand in the most unaccount- 
 
174 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 able manner. To add to the desolation of the scene, 
 the awful roar of the bar drowns all sound of the rising 
 gale. 
 
 This ever - dreaded bar, and the shifting " Sinkie 
 Sands" where the wild current of "the river" meets 
 the salt waves of the Moray Firth, seem with the 
 ceaseless tumult of waters — the unending unrest — to be 
 a fitting close for the course of the Findhorn. 
 
THKOUGH THE PASS OF GLENCOE. 
 
 Oufi autumn excursion of 1878 stands forth in strong 
 relief among the excursions of other autumns. It 
 extended over only three short weeks, but it made so 
 great an impression that now, after the lapse of several 
 years, the events of each day, we might say of each 
 hour, can be recalled and chronicled with the most 
 minute detail. The impression was such that at the 
 very thought of " the Highlands " a mental picture 
 rises, delightful even at this distance for the mind to 
 dwell upon. Did our enjoyment arise from the fact 
 that the beauty of the scenery far surpassed our ex- 
 pectations ; or had the charm its origin in the feelings 
 aroused by a visit to one's native land — that land 
 before all others — so that mountain and moor and 
 loch were viewed through rose-coloured spectacles ? 
 But setting sentiment and spectacles aside, there was 
 beauty everywhere — in the blue mountains, fir forests, 
 and winding lakes, which, seen in sunshine and shower, 
 seemed to change like fairyland in a transformation 
 scene. I shall not attempt to describe our three weeks' 
 sojourn. I will merely touch upon our first day's 
 journey to the Inverness-shire Highlands, and give 
 some of our impressions of the road. 
 
 On the morning of the 10th of August we took the 
 train from Stirling for Tyndrum, then the farthest 
 point to which the railway had been opened, and 
 
176 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 before midday found ourselves in the midst of a region 
 of poetry and romance, made classical by the genius of 
 Walter Scott. The early sunshine had given promise 
 of all that could be desired in the weather for the pro- 
 posed long day's journey to Ballachulish, on the shore 
 of one of the picturesque lochs opening on the Great 
 Glen of Scotland, or, as it is more commonly called, 
 the Caledonian Canal. But by the time that the train 
 reached Callander a heavy shower veiled any view of 
 the wooded hills and mountain heights in its neigh- 
 bourhood. The same cause also obscured our sight of 
 the romantic Pass of Leny, yet from time to time the 
 struggling sunlight broke through the showers, and 
 gave lovely glimpses of the Pass, clothed with its 
 drapery of birch and other pendent foliage, and which 
 proved so narrow at one part that, in gliding through, 
 it seemed as if we could almost with outstretched hand 
 have touched the rocky roots of Ben Ledi. 
 
 Emerging from the Pass, the train ran close by the 
 low open shore of Loch Lubnaig, which had for its 
 opposite boundary the inaccessible precipices of Ben 
 Ledi, where "rose Ben Ledi's ridge in air," and on 
 through the country of " Eob Eoy MacGregor." What 
 tales and traditions did not attach to each inch of 
 ground ! What associations did not the name of each 
 hillside station awaken ! As we proceeded onward, 
 through heath and moss, and birch and boulders, one 
 felt somehow as if the workaday world of fact had been 
 left far behind, and that we had entered into the fairy- 
 like world of fiction. We began to realise that there 
 was a reality in romance, and here before our eyes 
 romance in reality, and that the two were so blended 
 together as to be almost bewildering. 
 
 Owing to the ominous increase of Scotch mist, we had 
 
THROUGH THE PASS OF GLENCOE. 177 
 
 to imagine all the loveliness of Loch Earn as our train 
 sped along near its precipitous shore. Yet here again 
 we were able just to trace grand outlines through the 
 moving mist, and the vigorous growth and vivid green 
 of the foliage near to the margin of the loch testified to 
 the genial character of its sheltered climate. But the 
 scenery became more wild and bleak as the line, always 
 ascending, left Ben Yoirlich and other mountains far 
 behind ; and traversing a high, uninhabited district, 
 bare of wood, which seemed an interminable sea of bare 
 hillocks, we had ample evidence that the half-day's 
 journey by rail had carried us into the very heart of 
 the Highlands. Not only did the features of the land- 
 scape look different, but the very elements appeared to 
 have undergone a change. The soft showers of the 
 south and the moving mists of the hills had by this 
 time resolved themselves into a furious rainfall, which 
 seemed from its violence to partake of the wild char- 
 acter of this Highland wilderness. It was driven in 
 squalls from the glens that opened on the west into 
 this high, inhospitable region, and beat upon our rail- 
 way carriage as if battling with our invasion of these 
 mountain solitudes. The necessity of having to 
 leave the shelter of the compartment gave us pass- 
 engers no little anxiety, and perhaps more was felt 
 than expressed. 
 
 When, however, with a score of other travellers, we 
 alighted at Tyndrum, we were happily able to look at 
 the comic side of the position, and I for one was 
 conscious that a sketch of the assemblage of Scottish 
 pleasure -seeking tourists, fighting their way in the 
 pelting rain and wind to the hotel door where the 
 Glencoe coach stood, would have made a good illustra- 
 tion for ' Punch.' The distance was only a few hundred 
 
 M 
 
178 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 yards, but there was " water, water everywhere." It 
 ran in streams about our feet, and while my one hand 
 grasped the indispensable handbag, the other vainly 
 sought to hold up an umbrella. It would have been 
 some satisfaction had we been told then, as we were 
 afterwards, that Tyndrum is one of the rainiest stations 
 in all Scotland, its average rainfall being 104 inches. 
 It was a question whether to start on a five hours' 
 drive in this rain-storm, through a grand though 
 dreary region, or wait for one more day — or maybe an 
 indefinite number of days — in this solitary Tyndrum 
 hotel, which was treeless, shelterless, and exposed to 
 every blast. But as our coach places had been engaged 
 and paid for, and as rooms were in readiness at Balla- 
 chulish, and others had been secured at Bridge of Eoy, 
 we decided to press onward, with a vague hope that in 
 escaping from Tyndrum we might somehow escape from 
 this deluge of rain. And as it proved, the result far 
 exceeded our most sanguine expectations : when only a 
 little way beyond Tyndrum the rain slackened, and by 
 the time that we were ^Ye miles on the road it had all 
 but ceased. Not, however, without anxious misgivings 
 had we taken our seats, and there is no doubt that had 
 we been aware of the extent of the uninhabited deer- 
 tracts and shelterless wastes to be traversed that day, 
 we would not with open eyes have made the venture in 
 such weather. 
 
 The coach put one in mind of a lumbering old 
 French diligence, and, in spite of looking spick and 
 span from white and red paint, it felt altogether an 
 uncanny vehicle, and gave one the impression of 
 having a venerable frame. It was swung so curi- 
 ously high that wooden steps were necessary to 
 mount or dismount from the inside ; and as its load 
 
^B J^-^m.^m^.^ ., iiii -^. -LW.— ■ 1 - WBegBBSgB^ 
 
 THROUGH THE PASS OF GLENCOE. 179 
 
 was piled on the top, it seemed with that shaky 
 movement as if constructed to invite an overturn. 
 
 Onward we drove, through a bare, high country, 
 until signs of habitation were sighted on the fir-clad 
 shores of Loch Tulla. Then, with the irregular 
 form of Loch Lydoch for some time in view, the 
 road rose slowly over a dreary waste, passing on the 
 left corries which cleft the hills noted for red-deer. 
 A Highland lassie, to whom the guard had given a 
 seat, and who for a few miles was our fellow- 
 passenger, was pointing out Blackmount forest, one 
 of the finest deer-corries in Scotland, when our at- 
 tention was drawn to a herd of red-deer standing on 
 the brow of the hill a mile or two to the right, 
 their antlers visible against the sky, which by this 
 time was fortunately clear. Long, however, before 
 we reached the top of the hill, where the road is 
 carried at an elevation of 1500 feet above the sea, 
 they had disappeared among the interminable moors. 
 
 We asked our Highland maiden, whose cottage 
 home seemed to have no neighbour within several 
 miles, how far she lived from church. 
 
 "Nine miles." 
 
 " Do you ever walk there and back ? " we ventured 
 to ask. 
 
 ** Oh yes, — often in the summer, but never in the 
 winter. The snow is too deep for us to venture 
 far." 
 
 "And what do you do with yourselves in the long 
 winter evenings ? " 
 
 " Oh, we spin and we knit, and we keep busy ; 
 and we speak the English sometimes, lest we should 
 forget it altogether." 
 
 She alighted without any aid while the coach was 
 
180 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 in movement, and those who remember the high 
 perch of that curious vehicle will understand what 
 this implied. 
 
 After some miles through open and desolate moors, 
 having, with the exception of two roadside inns, the 
 resort of anglers, passed through a country scarcely 
 inhabited, we entered the Pass of Glencoe. 
 
 Our first glimpse of this famous Pass, in an im- 
 pending storm, gave us, as it were, the keynote to 
 Ossian's poetry. He was born on the banks of the 
 Cona, which is the stream flowing through the glen ; 
 and so much does his poetry abound in allusions to 
 " the mists of Cona," to its sounding hills, and to 
 the ** clouds that rest upon Cona," to its eddying 
 winds and roaring torrents, that he is often poeti- 
 cally termed " The Voice of Cona " or " The Bard of 
 Cona." Yet the fact of all Ossian's poems being so 
 much an utterance of the impression made on his 
 mind and imagination by the scenery of Glencoe 
 was not the point of interest that enchained our 
 thoughts. The interest of Glencoe was one which, 
 alas ! cannot now even at this distance be approached 
 calmly, as can, at any moment, a hazy survey of 
 Ossian's poetry. 
 
 In Gaelic, Glencoe signifies the Glen of Weeping 
 — a fit name, which none can hear without a thrill 
 or without thoughts that involuntarily revert to the 
 event which has stamped it with sadness unspeak- 
 able. In entering it, the rain, which had kept ofi" for 
 one bright hour, gathered again, and was swept by 
 a wild gust up the glen : we could then see nothing 
 but grand and shadowy forms of the dark hills on 
 the left and the walls of precipice that guarded its 
 entrance on the right. But the drenching storm 
 
^^^— -— J 9 .J-:f 
 
 THROUGH THE PASS OF GLENCOE. 181 
 
 passed over, and the pale sunlight in the west 
 struggling through the mass of drifting clouds threw 
 its light on the rugged outlines of detached moun- 
 tain masses that towered over the narrow Pass. 
 Then the rills that like silver threads veined the 
 perpendicularly steep rocks were at their base banked 
 by tufts of tender green, which now caught the 
 light, and looked in lovely contrast against the pre- 
 vailing black purple of the cliffs. We were prepared 
 for grandeur, but not for such beauty; and seen 
 thus, in sudden storm and sunshine, the Pass of 
 Glencoe was inconceivably grand. At one point it 
 narrowed where the mountains on each side became 
 more lofty and more gloomy; but the vapoury veil 
 had been uplifted, and as we proceeded the white 
 light, warming into a glorious sunset, burst through 
 and dispelled the rain - clouds, touching the sharp 
 peaks and line of crags in its golden glow. 
 
 The scene was weird and solemn, and as the road 
 began to zigzag and wind down the glen we sat in 
 silence. The sunset upon those black towering cliffs 
 was worth a thousand miles of travel. 
 
 The rapid rate of descent roused us to attention. 
 One could only marvel at the dexterity of the driver ; 
 and as the coach swung round the sharp angles, and 
 the leaders kept their footing where it seemed they 
 must inevitably run over each steep precipice, another 
 feeling than that of awe and wonder held us silent for 
 the time. The passage down the glen, which was only 
 too short and rapid, will dwell in our memory. 
 
 The vestiges of the old village of Glencoe at the 
 westward opening of the glen are still to be seen. 
 Here, where its stream comes down in greater volume, 
 among grass, a few trees, and other traces of cultiva- 
 
182 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 tion, portions of the walls and foundations of the 
 cottages yet remain. A fertile spot in the wilderness 
 was this which was chosen by the ill-fated MacDonalds 
 as their home — the wild glen behind, with its bare 
 black walls of shelter, the bits of pasture and of field 
 around the doors, and almost within sight of the green 
 islet on Loch Leven, where the dead chiefs of the clan 
 are still carried for burial. But treachery did its work 
 too surely, and the once smiling village within reach 
 of the lovely sea fiord stands silent and desolate and 
 in ruins. It will always be the village of the murdered 
 MacDonalds. Few cottars will build upon that site 
 which has been dyed by the blood of the innocent 
 people, and it will remain as a monument of perfidy, 
 the bare recital of which makes one instinctively recoil. 
 One of the most painful aspects of the tragedy is its 
 nearness to our own times, since it was not enacted 
 in what are called the dark ages, but only two 
 centuries ago. 
 
 In 1691 a proclamation, exhorting the unruly High- 
 landers to swear allegiance to William and Mary, 
 promised a free pardon to all who would take the 
 oath on or before the 31st day of December, and 
 who would undertake to live as peaceable subjects 
 and neighbours. One by one the clans swore allegiance 
 before the required date with the exception of Maclan, 
 the old chief of the MacDonalds of Glencoe, who de- 
 layed taking the oath until the 31st of December, and 
 who, when he repaired on that day with his principal 
 vassals to Fort William for the purpose, was dismayed 
 to find no official there competent to receive it. The 
 nearest magistrate was at Inveraray, then not to be 
 reached in less than a five days' journey ; but the chief 
 set out in this the depth of the Highland winter — not 
 
THROUGH THE PASS OF GLENCOE. 183 
 
 even halting at his house, near which he had to pass — 
 and only reaching Inveraray on the 6th of January. 
 The sheriflf urged that it was out of rule to receive 
 any signature after the date fixed by the proclama- 
 tion ; but the veteran, with tears in his eyes, pled on 
 behalf of his people, and prevailed. The oath was duly 
 administered, and he returned with peace of mind to 
 his mountain glen. 
 
 A certificate detailing the circumstances of Maclan's 
 submission was sent on to the authorities in Edinburgh, 
 and the intelligence soon reached London. But, alas ! 
 his delay in taking the oath had been eagerly seized 
 by his enemies at Court, who had already decided upon 
 his fate, and who, as is stated on undoubted authority, 
 suppressed the evidence. 
 
 An order placed before William was signed by him, 
 although it is asserted that he never read it. This fatal 
 order, worded in rather vague terms, gave the royal 
 sanction for the extirpation of the MacDonalds of 
 Glencoe as " a set of thieves." 
 
 On the 1st of February 120 soldiers arrived in 
 Glencoe on this mission in the guise of friends — 
 Maclan's arch - enemy at Court having advised that 
 the attack, to be successful, should be " sudden and 
 secret." 
 
 Then succeeds a record of facts which, for treachery 
 and cruelty, is without a parallel. The soldiers, officered 
 by men whose names will be for ever execrated, were 
 hospitably received by the unsuspecting inhabitants. 
 During several days the best cheer that the glen could 
 produce was spread before them, and we read that 
 villagers and soldiers beguiled the winter evenings by 
 friendly games at cards. 
 
 But at five in the morning of the 5th of February 
 
184 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 1692, at the preconcerted moment, the signal was 
 given, the butchery began, and the tale that follows 
 is so piteous that it is not easy to tell. Among the 
 first victims was the aged chief, roused from his sleep ; 
 of the 200 inhabitants sixty were slain. Under the 
 sheltering darkness many effected their escape into the 
 mountains ; but it is said that the greater number 
 perished in the snow, which lay deep at the time. 
 Macaulay describes the terrible sufferings of the fugi- 
 tives, and observes, '*How many old men, how many 
 women with babes in their arms, sank down and slept 
 their last sleep in the snow?" In the district once 
 entirely MacDonald, there are few now of the name. 
 
 But the first glimpse of the salt waters of Loch 
 Leven, with the sight of its bright green shores and 
 the far-off hills in the west, weaned us from the gloomy 
 thoughts to which the glen and its tragic memories 
 had given rise. Soon we found ourselves in the new 
 Glencoe : unlike its prototype, and far from being a 
 vale of tears, it is a populous, busy, and by no means 
 picturesque village, inhabited chiefly by quarrymen 
 who work at its extensive slate quarries. A marble 
 quarry has also lately been opened, where a pretty, 
 pale, pink- tinted marble, peculiarly banded like jasper, 
 is worked. 
 
 How glad we were to reach before nightfall the 
 comfortable hotel at Ballachulish ! How welcome was 
 the next day's Sunday rest there, and how refreshing 
 the salt air off the sea ! The hotel is beautifully situ- 
 ated, commanding views seaward across Loch Linnhe 
 to the hills of Morven, and eastward over Loch Leven, 
 with its wooded mountain shores, and the dark peaks 
 of Glencoe in the background. Squalls and storms 
 
?:T^"i^»r^j»,»»., ' j^p.. I »-^^i^5"B^w^ 
 
 THROUGH THE PASS OF GLENCOE. 185 
 
 were then forgotten, and the scenery was seen at its 
 best — in cloudless sunshine. 
 
 But we had hardly eyes for the lovely scenery ; one 
 of us at least could only think of Glencoe. Throughout 
 the length and breadth of the land there are to our 
 mind no glens which, for picturesque beauty and 
 pathetic interest, can compare with Glencoe. 
 
LOCHABEE AND THE PARALLEL ROADS. 
 
 Among the remarkable effects resulting from the in- 
 tense cold which, according to geologists, prevailed 
 in Great Britain at a comparatively recent period 
 may be instanced the famous '* parallel roads " of 
 Glen Roy and adjacent glens of Lochaber. Last 
 summer the unusually fine weather tempted us to 
 make a long-projected visit to this classic district of 
 Inverness-shire, and on a bright autumn morning we 
 stepped into the train for Stirling on our way to 
 Glen Roy. Thence, instead of approaching it by the 
 ordinary road from the east, by a few hours' drive 
 from Kingussie or Dalwhinnie on the Highland Rail- 
 way, we took the route by way of Tyndrum and 
 through Glencoe to Loch Leven, not only for the sake 
 of the beauty of the scenery, but also in order to 
 familiarise ourselves with the wonderful exhibition of 
 ice-action in the form of old moraines, erratic blocks, 
 and Toches moutonnees visible at every step on this 
 route, and which prepared us for a better under- 
 standing of the exceptional effects due to the same 
 causes in Lochaber. 
 
 On the evening of the 12th of August we arrived 
 at Mr Macintosh's comfortable inn at Bridge of Roy, 
 well situated as a centre from which to explore the 
 phenomena in Glen Roy and Glen Spean, through 
 both of which the parallel roads extend. Here the 
 
mm^m 
 
 LOCHABER AND THE PARALLEL ROADS. 187 
 
 still snow-specked mountains on the south side of 
 the Spean reminded us how insignificant were these 
 white crevices on their summits compared with the 
 mantle of perpetual snow and ice that enfolded the 
 country in days primeval, and the evidences of which 
 were visible upon every rock around us. 
 
 On the following morning we proceeded up the 
 beautiful valley of the Spean, on both sides of which 
 the lowest of the parallel roads is wonderfully well 
 exhibited. But while charmed with the scenery, we 
 were still more struck by the marvellous display of 
 glaciated rocks and glacial debris underlying the fair 
 surface of the country. 
 
 A few miles up Glen Spean to the right, in a 
 glen joining at right angles, is the lonely Loch Treig, 
 rarely visited except by the naturalist or sportsman. 
 We were delighted with its wild beauty; but here 
 again it was the extraordinary exhibition of glacial 
 action which had rounded and polished the rocks to 
 a height of 1280 feet above the surface of the loch, 
 or more than 2000 feet above the level of the sea, 
 that engrossed our interest. It was in this deep 
 glen that accumulated the vast glacier which, accord- 
 ing to geologists, issued into and spread over Glen 
 Spean, so as not only to fill that glen, but also to 
 ascend the hills on the opposite side, and then, turn- 
 ing westward, passed down to the Great Glen of the 
 Caledonian Canal ; while another branch of it was 
 deflected eastward, and passed into and over Loch 
 Laggan. The view of the blue waters of this loch 
 was certainly fine, yet it is tame compared to its 
 wild neighbour of Treig. Loch Laggan now dis- 
 charges itself through Strath Spean into the sea on 
 the west coast; but during the existence of the 
 
188 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 great lake which filled the valley to the height of 
 its parallel road its outflow was, like that of the 
 lake of Glen Koy, eastward through the valley of 
 the Spey to the shores of the German Ocean. 
 
 As we descended Glen Spean on our return to 
 Koy Bridge, we needed no confirmation of the ex- 
 traordinary old glacial conditions. Wherever we met 
 with the bare surfaces of the rocks, they were worn 
 and rounded by ice-action ; and the striae, graved by 
 the old natural ice-tools, showed even the direction 
 in which the gigantic glacier had moved. It was to 
 this glacier that Mr Jamieson ascribes not only the 
 blocking up of the entrance to Glen Koy, but, by 
 its confluence with the Glen Arkaig glacier, the bar- 
 ring up of the valley of the Spean. 
 
 Early next day, with a cloudless sky, we had 
 passed through the village of Bohuntine (where dogs 
 seemed as numerous as householders), and were well 
 on our way up Glen Koy, where the lines of parallel 
 roads are best exhibited. But for those to whom 
 this Highland valley is a terra incognita, it may be 
 well to give a few words of description. 
 
 Glen Koy, in Gaelic Gleann Ruadh, or the Ked 
 Glen, is a long and rather narrow valley opening 
 into the wide and beautiful Glen Spean : its deep 
 ravine is the channel for the salmon - stream that 
 bears its name, and though green and fertile in the 
 very foreground at its entrance, it is elsewhere bare 
 and barren. From Koy Bridge to the head of the 
 glen the distance is about ten miles : its height 
 above the sea at its entrance is 400 feet, and at its 
 upper end 800 feet, while the mountains bounding it 
 on either side rise abruptly to the height of from 
 2000 to 2500 feet. 
 
VIEW OF GLEN ROY, WITH THE PARALLEL ROADS. 
 
LOCHABER AND THE PARALLEL ROADS. 189 
 
 Intent on observing the peculiar features of the 
 glen as they were gradually disclosed, we thought 
 not of the narrow road which was carried along the 
 slopes to its left side, and which, before we were 
 half-way, skirted abrupt declivities without any para- 
 pet, winding in and out as it followed the sinuosities 
 of the gravel terraces. There were also many danger- 
 ous bits where the clefts had been widened by recent 
 rain, and where, in consequence, in the hollows, the 
 width of the road — which had nothing to lose — had 
 been sensibly diminished. But our eyes were riveted 
 by the sight that presented itself, and which was alto- 
 gether unique. Heath - covered from summit to base, 
 and in a red glow from heath-bells in blossom, the 
 steep mountains on either side were bare of trees, 
 except where, down in the ravine of the river, a few 
 were to be seen growing as if they were strangers in 
 the land, and had a struggle for existence. Looking 
 neither at the heather nor the hills, we looked only 
 at the three "parallel roads," for a glimpse of which 
 we had travelled so far. 
 
 Stretching in lines as straight as if "drawn with a 
 ruler and pen,'' these grassy terraces or shelves are 
 carried grandly round the contours of the steep slopes 
 which bound the glen. Unlike any natural display 
 of the kind to be seen elsewhere, it is the firmness 
 of the lines and their faultless horizontality that are 
 so remarkable. Perfectly "parallel to each other and 
 to the horizon," the level of each corresponds exactly 
 with its counterpart, or rather its extension round on 
 the opposite side of the glen. 
 
 The height of the highest road in Glen Roy has been 
 ascertained to be 1155 feet above the sea, the middle 
 road 1077 feet, and the lowest 862 feet; hence the 
 
190 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 space between the upper and middle lines is less than 
 that between the middle and lower — the former giving 
 an interval of vertical height of 78 feet, and the latter 
 of about 215 feet. Each of the roads measures from 
 50 to 60 feet in width, and inclines slightly to the 
 centre of the valley. The relative distance is strictly 
 maintained between each, and the parallel roads stand 
 out, as far as the eye can reach, the prominent features 
 of the Eed Glen. They are rendered still more con- 
 spicuous by a slight change in the vegetation — their 
 level surfaces giving rise to a greater growth of 
 grass, with less of the wild gale mingling among the 
 heather. 
 
 About half-way up the glen, and before passing 
 Achavady, a solitary farmhouse, we climbed the side 
 of Bohuntine Hill, whence one of the most compre- 
 hensive views is to be obtained. There was no shelter 
 from the glare, and the pervading colour of the glen 
 was almost dazzling. But the air freshened as we 
 mounted higher, and we at last stood upon the col, 
 or pass, from which we looked down Glen Collarig. 
 From this height of 1000 feet we were able to scan 
 the parallel ledges on the opposite side of the glen, 
 girdling each flank and fitting into each recess and 
 hollow ; and involuntarily one began to speculate on 
 the probabilities of the origin that local tradition 
 had assigned to them, and which probably remained 
 unquestioned for centuries until science interposed. 
 
 These casan — in Gaelic, literally "roads" — were 
 evidently never made by the hand of man. The first 
 tradition, however, was that they had been fashioned 
 by Fingal and his mighty men ; then again, that they 
 had been made by the early Scottish kings for pur- 
 poses of hunting during their residence at Inverlochy 
 
LOCHABER AND THE PARALLEL ROADS. 191 
 
 Castle. But if heroes and kings ever used them as 
 hunting-paths, they found the roads ready-made and 
 defined in as strong relief on the mountain -sides as 
 they are at the present day. 
 
 The carriage - road continued passable until within 
 two or three miles of the head of the glen, where it 
 is joined on the left by a side glen known as Glen 
 Turret. Thence, climbing the hill in front, which is 
 lined by the two upper parallel roads, we traversed 
 the middle ledge. No. 3, and soon found ourselves 
 standing on the upper ledge. No. 2, whence the pros- 
 pect extended in one direction to the head of Glen 
 Roy, and in the other for some miles downward ; while 
 to our right we had a fine view up to the head of 
 Glen Turret. Here we noticed likewise how continuous 
 the " roads " were, and that breaks only occur where 
 the naked rock protrudes, shorn of its masking of 
 gravel, or where breaches have been made by the 
 descent of the hillside torrents. 
 
 From the head of Glen Turret a col conducts into 
 another deep glen opening out into the Caledonian 
 Canal. In this Glen Gluoy there is also another parallel 
 road, equally well marked, but it is 17 feet higher than 
 the uppermost in Glen Roy, and is generally known as 
 No. 1. No traces of Nos. 2, 3, and 4 are met with in 
 this glen. 
 
 From the point just named in the upper terrace of 
 Glen Roy we enjoyed a perfectly level walk of a mile 
 up Glen Turret, our heathery path being about 60 
 feet in width. Then the bare rock, coming to the 
 surface of the ''road" which we had followed so far, 
 began to fade, and was not traceable farther on this 
 side of the glen. Guided by sheep-tracks, we threaded 
 our way down to the only cottage in this glen, on 
 
192 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 the side of the stream which flows from the col 
 separating Glen Gluoy from Glen Turret. But by 
 this time the shadows had begun to lengthen, and 
 we had to direct our steps to our vehicle, crossing 
 rough hillocks of coarse gravel and sand — vestiges 
 of the shoals and debris deposited in the old lake. 
 
 How glad we were now to quench our thirst from 
 the linns by the way, and from the rills that trickled 
 down every slope! — for, notwithstanding the northern 
 latitude, the heat of the day had been suffocating, with 
 scarcely a cloud visible. Oppressed by this heat, how 
 much I was refreshed by the sweet scent of the wild 
 gale which abounded among the heather ! In this 
 remote spot there was no inn where we could find 
 food or shelter. We discovered, however, that our 
 driver had coolly entered the stable of the solitary 
 shooting lodge, and had there put up his horse. Not 
 only was this liberty condoned, but when we were 
 discovered, though strangers, we were kindly taken 
 in, hospitably treated, and sent on our way refreshed. 
 
 It had been altogether a day of intense interest — one 
 to be henceforward a landmark of memory. 
 
 As we drove back we could only wonder and ponder 
 on the very different physical conditions that must 
 have once existed, to leave such traces as were evident 
 throughout the length and breadth of the glen. On 
 thinking upon the theories advanced to account for 
 the formation of the parallel roads, one felt compelled 
 to dismiss the heroic origin already alluded to, which 
 has long been fully disproved, and obliged to seek, in 
 the several theories that of late years have been ad- 
 vanced by men of science, for a more probable solution 
 of the problem. 
 
 It is now a doctrine of universal acceptance that the 
 
LOCHABER AND THE PARALLEL ROADS. 193 
 
 parallel roads owe their existence to purely natural 
 causes. But there is some difference of opinion among 
 geologists as to whether they are shores of fresh-water 
 lakes or beaches of marine origin. Numerous papers 
 have been written on the subject, and a number of 
 distinguished geologists have recorded their views at 
 length. 
 
 The first who directed attention to the parallel 
 roads was Pennant, in 1776, in the appendix to vol. 
 iii. of his *Tour in Scotland,' but he seemed inclined 
 to accept the traditional theory of their artificial 
 origin. 
 
 The next notice of them appears to have been in 
 1816, when a theory equally incredible was set forth, 
 its author suggesting that they might have been 
 aqueducts for artificial irrigation, similar to those in 
 Valais, near Brieg. 
 
 In the following year, however, Dr MacCulloch, 
 then (1817) President of the Geological Society of 
 London, brought forward a paper in which he showed 
 that the " roads " must in all probability have been 
 margins of fresh - water lakes. Henceforward the 
 hypothesis of their being lines of water-level was 
 never called in question, and this important step in 
 the argument has since been demonstrated almost to 
 a certainty. 
 
 Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, the accomplished histo- 
 rian of the ' Morayshire Floods,' submitted a valu- 
 able series of observations to the Royal Society of 
 Edinburgh in 1818, in which he came generally to 
 the same conclusions as Dr MacCulloch. But the 
 difficulty experienced by these two writers was to 
 conceive what possible barrier could have closed up 
 the mouth of the glens, so as to allow of the forma- 
 
 N 
 
194 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 tion of the lakes, and in what manner the barriers 
 could have been removed. 
 
 More recent writers tried to obviate this difficulty 
 by suggesting a detrital barrier formed by the heap- 
 ing up of debris by the sea as the land emerged after 
 a first glacial period. It has been called the Detrital 
 theory, and its able advocate, Mr Milne-Home, has sup- 
 ported his views in a series of three elaborate papers. 
 
 The objections raised to this theory led to the 
 suggestion of another, termed the Marine theory. 
 Admitting the parallel roads to have been formed 
 by water action, it was contended that they were 
 not lines of old lake level, but lines of old sea- 
 beaches left when arms of the sea filled the glens, 
 their successive levels resulting from movements of 
 upheaval of the land when, to speak more clearly, 
 the land stood at a lower level and the lakes formed 
 straits. This Marine theory, originally brought for- 
 ward, though since abandoned, by Darwin, has been 
 strongly advocated by the late Dr Kobert Chambers, 
 also by Professors Rogers, Nicol, and others. But 
 the opponents to it contend that, as the parallel 
 road in Glen Eoy known as No. 1 stands at an 
 elevation of 1173 feet, or 18 feet higher than any 
 "road" exhibited in the other Lochaber glens, the 
 hypothesis of a marine origin is virtually disproved. 
 Besides, they argue that if the sea filled Glen Eoy, 
 Glen Gluoy, Glen Glaster, and Glen Spean, it must 
 have risen to the same level in the surrounding 
 glens, whereas there is no evidence outside these 
 Lochaber glens of any such parallel lines. The ab- 
 sence of marine shells is also another argument 
 adduced against this theory. 
 
 The question was surrounded with these perplexities 
 
LOCHABER AND THE PARALLEL ROADS. 195 
 
 when, in 1840, Agassiz, visiting the district, offered 
 an entirely new solution. He had been studying for 
 some years the glacial phenomena of Switzerland and 
 the Alps, and detecting the similarity which existed 
 between that region at the present time and what 
 had once obtained in the glens of Lochaber, sug- 
 gested that the parallel roads might have been 
 formed by lakes dammed back by glaciers descending 
 from Ben Nevis and the neighbouring mountains, 
 during that reign of ice and snow which by geolo- 
 gists has been termed the Glacial Period. 
 
 It remained for Mr Jamieson, of Ellon, whose 
 important paper, " On the Parallel Roads of Glen 
 Roy," was published in 1863 in vol. xix. of the 
 ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,' to 
 strengthen by new data, gleaned by careful investi- 
 gation, the suggestion made by the philosophical 
 mind of Louis Agassiz. And it is this ojlacial view 
 of the Lake theory, as interpreted by Jamieson, that 
 has received the most powerful support, and can 
 claim as its advocates the largest number of dis- 
 tinguished scientific men, including Lyell, Geikie, Sir 
 H. James, Tyndall, &c. 
 
 Thus we have : 1st. The Fresh- water Lake theory, 
 with detrital barrier. 2nd. The Marine theory, with 
 submergence. 3rd. The Fresh -water Lake theory, 
 with ice barrier. 
 
 From evidence of old ice-action of the same nature 
 as that which has been so frequently described in 
 these pages, geologists have come to the conclusion 
 that the whole of Scotland was once covered with 
 ice and snow, as Greenland is at the present day. 
 This Glacial theory, which was so startling at first 
 sight, now meets with general assent. 
 
196 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 According to the Scotch geologists, this intense 
 cold was followed by a more temperate period, in 
 which the ice and snow disappeared. This again, 
 they consider, was succeeded by a second cold period 
 of less intensity than the first, during which local 
 glaciers descended from all the high mountain-ranges. 
 It was at this latter period that Mr Jamieson places 
 the formation of the lakes of Lochaber, and he de- 
 scribes how a great glacier descending from Glen 
 Arkaig and traversing the Caledonian Valley would 
 block up the mouth of Glen Gluoy and partly that 
 of Glen Spean, whilst another great glacier, issuing 
 from Loch Treig, crossed Glen Spean and blocked up 
 Glen Glaster and also Glen Eoy. 
 
 Sir Charles Lyell, adopting the general views of 
 Mr Jamieson, makes the following remarks on the 
 period at which the lakes were formed : " On the 
 whole, therefore, I conclude that the Glen Eoy terrace- 
 lines and those of some neighbouring valleys were 
 formed on the borders of glacier-lakes, in times long 
 subsequent to the principal glaciation of Scotland."^ 
 
 Before leaving the district we were desirous of ex- 
 amining the lower parallel road, No. 4, which is so 
 well defined on each side of Glen Spean. Ascending 
 from Achluachrach, about a couple of miles east- 
 ward of Eoy Bridge, by a track carried up the side of 
 Craig Dhu, and which merged in the natural '*road," 
 we continued our walk on it where it swept grandly 
 round the mountain flank, and were thus enabled to 
 look down upon Glen Glaster before we began the 
 descent to the hamlet of Bohenie. 
 
 ^ Antiquity of Man, ed. 4, 1873, p. 312. Sir J. Prestwich, in an article 
 " On the Origin of the Parallel Roads of Lochaber " (Proc. Royal Society, 
 vol. xxix., 1879, p. 6), "assigns the Lochaber lakes to the close of the first 
 period of great glaciation." 
 
LOCHABER AND THE PARALLEL ROADS. 197 
 
 I was much struck in passing along this little -fre- 
 quented track, which is a mountain pass between the 
 glens, by cairns of stones similar to those we had 
 seen standing in groups of three, four, or more else- 
 where in this district, scattered at various points like 
 landmarks in the distance. These cairns are raised to 
 mark the spots where, in bringing the dead across the 
 hills for burial, the bearers for rest deposit their 
 burden. It was touching to come on some of these 
 rude monuments, hoary and lichen -spotted, thus hal- 
 lowing for ever the ground whereon the body of some 
 dear one had been temporarily laid. 
 
 Our last excursion in Lochaber was to the lower part 
 of Glen Spean — to Larig Leachan, one of the unin- 
 habited glens opening on the south side of the Strath. 
 To reach this we drove down to Spean Bridge, and 
 crossing it and back two miles on the opposite bank, 
 began the ascent by walking through the long heather 
 to the lonely cottage called Achnafraschoille, which 
 stands in the midst of a wild heath. Here, to save 
 time, we fortunately found a guide — fortunately, be- 
 cause the rain, beginning to fall, blurred the outlines 
 of the chain of dark hills, deeply scored as they were 
 by wild corries and glens. 
 
 On and up we toiled with this "son of the soil," 
 through deep heather, starting coveys of grouse that 
 rose with a whirr near our feet, when, after a long 
 though gradual ascent in pouring rain, we found that, 
 as usual, we were mounting over hillocks of heath- 
 grown gravel, with here and there a large rock boulder, 
 the now familiar evidences of old ice-action prominent 
 at the entrance of all those side glens. Beyond these 
 moraine heaps were rounded glaciated rocks at a height 
 of 1500 feet. The portion of the lowest parallel road 
 
198 STUDIES OF SCOTTISH SCENERY AND HISTORY. 
 
 reported to exist and to terminate here, was of course 
 not to be recognised in rain dense enough to blot out 
 the contours of the mountains. 
 
 The phases of the discussion are altogether so curious 
 and so numerous — and we believe they are not yet 
 ended — that we can only make this broad statement, 
 and would refer our reader to study for himself the 
 fascinating literature of the parallel roads, or, better 
 still, counsel him to go and investigate the ground 
 for himself. 
 
III. 
 
 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 SHORT STUDIES IN PHYSIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Amongst subjects of scientific study none is more 
 fascinating, and there are few upon which a greater 
 diversity of opinion still exists, than that part of 
 physical geography and geology relating to the causes 
 which have led to the present configuration of the 
 earth ; or, in other words, the causes which have given 
 rise to the great mountain chains, to the deep ocean 
 beds, to the occurrence of lakes, and to the general 
 disposition of land and water. 
 
 The land with its snowy alpine heights, its hills, and 
 its valleys ; with its wooded plains, its arid deserts, its 
 rounded downs or sharp escarpments ; with its active 
 volcanoes and placid lakes and rapid rivers, presents a 
 diversity of surface that delights the eye by its pros- 
 pect, and the mind by the many subjects for inquiry 
 which it afi'ords. 
 
 The ocean basins, too, with their irregularity of con- 
 tours and their profound depths, with their coral-reefs 
 and clusters of islands, introduce features equalling in 
 interest the picturesque lineaments of the land. 
 
 It is the office of physiography, a science lying mid- 
 way between geology and geography, and partaking of 
 the nature of both, to account for all these diversities 
 
202 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 of surface, and to investigate the causes which have led 
 to the present configuration of the globe. ^ 
 
 It must not be supposed that the globe which we 
 inhabit was always as we now see it : we have to bear 
 in mind that its surface has been modified during suc- 
 cessive geological periods until it presents the form that 
 it now has. We are naturally so much impressed by 
 the beauty of the present surface of the earth, by the 
 apparent immobility and permanence of the orders of 
 animals and plants now living, as also by their com- 
 plete possession of, and adaptation to, the existing 
 surface, that we can hardly conceive that beneath an 
 exterior so fully and admirably adorned there exist the 
 wrecks and ruins of former surfaces of the earth, once 
 probably as rich, teeming, and diversified as the one on 
 which we move. The present terrestrial surface is, in 
 fact, but a film over the solid frame of our planet : let 
 life cease, and its whole organic structure would 
 crumble down, leaving scarcely a trace behind. How 
 difficult, then, it would be after the lapse of a few years 
 to picture the beauty and variety of the present scene ! 
 And so it is now with respect to the past : entombed 
 in the rocks and ground beneath us are the remains of 
 former surfaces of this planet, but of the then existing 
 plants and animals comparatively few traces are left. 
 Their living forms have passed away, and all that 
 remains of them are portions, too often fragmentary, 
 of the harder skeleton, or a few leaf impressions and 
 fragments of wood, preserved by chance and protected 
 from decay in the sediment deposited in the beds of 
 former seas and lakes — sediments now in part hardened 
 
 ^ [The term Physiography is now used to embrace a wider survey of 
 Nature, not only of the earth in particular, but of the universe in 
 general.] 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 203 
 
 into stone, and forming the solid rocks of our hills and 
 valleys.^ 
 
 Much as men of science may differ as to the kind and 
 degree of the agents that have caused the wonderful 
 changes it has undergone, there is one point which is 
 clear, and upon which physicists and geologists are all 
 pretty well agreed — namely, that the crust of the 
 earth, if now rigid, must at one time have had great, 
 and seems yet to retain some, flexibility. 
 
 The more prominent features of the surface are 
 clearly due to upheavals, by subterranean agencies, at 
 former periods of the earth's history. Others again are 
 distinctly traceable to denudation or the wearing-down 
 power of meteorological agencies still active — namely, 
 to ice, snow, and rain, to heat and drought, to winds 
 and tempests ; others to earthquakes and volcanoes — in 
 short, to the wear and tear of the elements, and, as it 
 were, to the action of " Frost and Fire." 
 
 Physicists and geologists, however, are still at issue 
 on some of these questions, and even geologists among 
 themselves assign very different values to the several 
 agencies. 
 
 The hypothesis long accepted was that the earth was 
 originally in a heated fluid state. Astronomers also 
 had shown that the form of the earth, which is that 
 of a flattened spheroid, was most compatible with the 
 theory of the rotation of a fluid mass on its axis. 
 
 Fifty years ago the general belief of geologists was 
 that our globe consisted of a molten nucleus covered 
 by a thin solid crust some thirty miles thick. But 
 physicists brought forward several objections to this 
 theory of a molten nucleus with a thin crust, and 
 
 1 See ' The Ground Beneath Us,' by Joseph Prestwich, 1857. Van 
 Voorst. 
 
204 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 contended for a more solid structure fgr our earth 
 throughout. 
 
 William Hopkins was the first to propound the 
 theory of a solid sphere. Keasoning on astronomical 
 data furnished by the phenomena of precession and 
 nutation, and calculating the effect which internal 
 fluidity would have upon these phenomena, he arrived 
 at the conclusion that the earth's crust could not have 
 a thickness of less than eight hundred or a thousand 
 miles ; and to account for the extravasation of lava he 
 supposed that there were in various places, at no great 
 depth from the surface, lakes of fluid lava. 
 
 Sir William Thomson (now Lord Kelvin) endorsed 
 this opinion, and in 1862, in his celebrated paper, *'0n 
 the Secular Cooling of the Earth," expressed his belief 
 that our earth passed from a fluid state into the condi- 
 tion of a globe solid throughout in a comparatively 
 brief space of time, since which solidification he con- 
 sidered all geological events to have taken place. 
 
 Again in 1876 Sir William Thomson insisted in 
 emphatic terms on the solidity of our earth through- 
 out, allowing, however, that occasional cavities or 
 spaces exist which are occupied by liquid lava. His 
 investigations led him to the conclusion that our earth 
 had a rigidity equal to that of glass or steel. And 
 further, our great mathematician utterly rejected any 
 and all geological theories which would assume the 
 earth to consist of a shell of solid matter of any degree 
 of thickness covering a fluid interior. 
 
 Geologists, however, assert that the conclusions 
 arrived at mathematically by physicists do not always 
 agree with the geological facts as seen by them ; and, 
 as the late Mr Hopkins observed, "Whatever hypothesis 
 we adopt, we must ever recollect that the final test of 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 205 
 
 its truth must always be sought in the process of an 
 accurate deduction of consequences resulting from our 
 original assumptions, and a careful comparison of such 
 calculated results with observed phenomena." 
 
 It is found, and in this all parties agree, that in 
 descending beneath the surface, after passing the line 
 of mean annual temperature, the heat increases with 
 the depth in a ratio which, though not always regular, 
 is constant as far as we have gone. So well known is 
 this, that one difficulty with which our miners have to 
 contend is the impossibility of going beyond a certain 
 depth in consequence of the increasing heat of the rocks. 
 In one of the deeper coal mines in this country, that 
 of Eosebridge pit, at Wigan, which is 2445 feet deep, 
 the temperature of the rock is 94° Fahr. ; and 4000 
 feet was the limit of the depth to which the Koyal 
 Coal Commission of 1871, after giving the subject full 
 consideration, and allowing for the effects of ventila- 
 tion, believed that it would be practicable to work our 
 coal mines. 
 
 The hot springs which rise to the surface in coun- 
 tries that are not volcanic, such as the hot mineral 
 waters of Bath and the warm springs of Buxton, are 
 supposed to owe their high temperature simply to 
 the great depths from which they rise — finding an 
 upward passage through some small fracture or fissure 
 that exists far down below the surface. Hence, on 
 the assumption that the heat of the earth goes on 
 increasing to profound depths at the progressive rate 
 of 1" Fahr. for every fifty to sixty feet of depth, 
 which is the mean arrived at from a number of ob- 
 servations (and so far as we know there is no reason 
 to believe that it materially varies), a point must be 
 reached, at a depth of about thirty miles, when the 
 
206 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 rocks would become fluid by intense heat. The point 
 of fusion may, however, be afi'ected by great pressure, 
 a question which we shall consider afterwards. 
 
 Again, geologists urge that the flexibility of the 
 crust — a flexibility retained until the latest geological 
 periods — is only compatible with a soft and yielding 
 substratum. The crumplings of the strata along lines 
 of disturbance often show segments of the earth's 
 surface compressed into three-quarters or to one-half 
 of their original dimensions, so that a width of strata 
 originally extending over twenty miles has been com- 
 pressed and crumpled into fifteen or even ten miles. 
 Take, for example, the Ardennes, which form a suc- 
 cession of squeezed strata about fifty miles wide that 
 must, previous to compression, have occupied eighty 
 or probably a hundred miles ; or look at the con- 
 torted coal strata on the northern flanks of the 
 Ardennes, which in Belgium are so wonderfully 
 doubled over and over again upon themselves. 
 
 Take, again, the great mountain - chains of the 
 globe, all of which are produced by the lateral 
 pressure caused by contraction of a crust yielding 
 freely to the deforming action. This compression 
 and deformation have not only been in action in 
 long-past geological times, but have been continued 
 up to the very latest times. The Alps and the 
 Himalayas, which are amongst the greatest of our 
 mountain-chains, are also amongst the youngest, hav- 
 ing been formed at a period, geologically speaking, 
 little anterior to our own. Then, again, look at the 
 great continental elevations continued to a still later 
 period, and not even yet extinct. Thus, in Scandi- 
 navia and Arctic America, there are " raised beaches," 
 with shells all of living species, at heights of 300, 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. ' 207 
 
 400, and 500 feet above the level of the sea, extend- 
 ing over wide tracts ; and in our own country there 
 has clearly been a rise, at all events of some portion 
 of England and Wales, since the glacial period. 
 
 Geologists maintain that the theory of a solid 
 structure throughout is not only irreconcilable, but is 
 perfectly impossible, with this extreme flexibility and 
 other phenomena (which our limits will not allow us 
 to notice), although they admit that the flexibility 
 may be materially less in later geological periods 
 than it was in the earlier ones. They further re- 
 mark that volcanoes are not confined to one or a 
 few areas, but are widely spread over the face of the 
 globe, and that the composition of lava is so gen- 
 erally uniform that it is difiicult not to suppose but 
 that it is derived from one common substratum co- 
 extensive with the crust itself; and they contend 
 also that it is scarcely possible for lava to pass 
 through any enormously thick crust, owing to the 
 loss of heat which the lava would experience — a loss 
 which would lead to its solidification in the volcanic 
 ducts and to the extinction of the volcano. 
 
 We must, therefore, while admitting certain quali- 
 fications as indispensable, consider the theory of a 
 quasi -fluid interior versus an entirely solid interior 
 as still suh jiidice. Yet although physicists and 
 geologists diff'er respecting the later stages of the 
 earth's history, both agree as to its original fluidity 
 at an early stage. Further, one school of geology 
 makes common cause with the physicists in attribut- 
 ing greater energy to the forces in action in the 
 earlier stages of the earth's history than that which 
 prevails in our day. On this essential doctrine the 
 camp of the geologists is divided against itself. 
 
208 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 On looking into the state of opinion on this subject 
 fifty years ago, we find that extreme views were then 
 held with respect to the forces in action in former 
 times. The infant science of geology was expounded 
 almost exclusively by the disciples of the cataclysmic 
 school, who explained all the great former physical 
 changes by successive catastrophes. This theory, 
 which involved sudden and violent changes, was sup- 
 ported throughout his long life by Elie de Beaumont, 
 the distinguished French geologist, whose conclusions, 
 somewhat modified, continue to be the geological 
 creed of most Continental geologists, as distinct and 
 opposed to that other school which has gradually 
 become most popular in England. 
 
 Whilst Elie de Beaumont treated with great ability 
 of the physical consequences of this cataclysmic theory, 
 Alcide d'Orbigny considered it in relation to the life 
 of the globe, and inculcated the doctrine that with 
 each great catastrophe the life of the globe had been 
 renewed. He accounted for the successive phases of 
 life on the globe by the theory, now quite exploded, 
 of new and distinct creations, and taught that the 
 successive destruction of each world and all that 
 lived and grew and flourished upon it was followed 
 by entirely new creations. 
 
 In the mean time there arose the other theory, 
 which counteracted the prevailing influence and con- 
 tested many of the assumptions of the cataclysmic 
 school. This Uniformitarian school was heralded by 
 the writings of Hutton and Playfair, who advocated 
 uniformity of action in past times as in present as 
 suJEficient to account for the actual features of the 
 earth's surface. Their doctrines were expanded and 
 promulgated by the fascinating and eloquent works 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 209 
 
 of Lyell in this country and of Constant Prevost in 
 France, and were of great service in rectifying the 
 extreme views which before then had prevailed. But 
 it is a question whether this theory of uniform action 
 — uniform, according to Lyell, in kind and degree — 
 has not of late been carried too far. With few ex- 
 ceptions, it has become the accepted creed of the 
 younger English geologists; but there is a feeling 
 amongst many that it has been somewhat over- 
 strained, and that while it has done admirable 
 service in checking the more unphilosophical assump- 
 tion of the cataclysmic school, it has had a tendency 
 to hamper with foregone conclusions the freedom of 
 research and to restrict the limits of inquiry. 
 
 But while the majority of English geologists have 
 been led during the last fifty years to adopt the 
 creed of Uniformitarianism, and while the followers 
 of Lyell have probably carried it further than was 
 ever meant by their teacher, the physicists have 
 almost to a man sided with the small minority of 
 geologists, and have never accepted the doctrine of 
 uniform action in all time. 
 
 The observations of Sir W. Thomson on this head are 
 clear and decided. He says that the doctrine of uni- 
 formity in geology, as held by many of the most eminent 
 British geologists, assumes that the earth's surface and 
 upper crust have been nearly as they are at present in 
 temperature and other physical qualities during millions 
 and millions of years. He shows that this is incom- 
 patible with the loss of heat which the earth has under- 
 gone throughout geological times, and concludes that 
 no hypothesis " possessing the smallest vestige of prob- 
 ability can justify the supposition that the earth's upper 
 crust has remained nearly as it is, while from the whole, 
 
 
 
210 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 or from any part of the earth, so great a quantity of 
 heat has been lost."^ 
 
 Let ns now turn to the actual configuration of the 
 surface, and see upon which hypothesis that configura- 
 tion is best explained. 
 
 It is estimated that the proportion of the surface of 
 the globe covered by water is to the land surface as 
 278 to 100, and that the average height of land or 
 continents over the world above sea-level is somewhat 
 less than 1000 feet. The great mountain- chains by 
 which the continents are more or less traversed form 
 mere narrow ridges, which rise in no case more than 
 29,000 feet, or to an altitude of about 5J miles, and 
 add but comparatively little to the mass of ground 
 above the sea-level. 
 
 On the other hand, the contour lines of the oceanic 
 basins tell a very different tale of the great submarine 
 depressions. The soundings made on the recent voyage 
 of the Challenger in the North Pacific Ocean have shown 
 that its mean depth is not less than 15,000 feet, and 
 that of the South Pacific about 12,000 feet, while the 
 mean depth of the North Atlantic is found to be 14,000 
 feet, and of the South Atlantic 13,000 feet. It is only 
 in high northern latitudes, in the North Atlantic and 
 North Pacific, that the soundings give evidence of 
 shallower seas — of a mean depth of about 8000 feet. 
 
 Thus it is extraordinary how small the mass of land 
 projecting above the sea-level is, compared with the mass 
 of waters filling the depressions below that level. 
 Taking the average depth of the seas and ocean at 
 10,000 feet, and the height of the land as 1000 feet, 
 the mass of the land above water compared with the 
 
 1 [With reference to present views, see Sir Archibald Geikie's Address 
 to the Geological Section of the British Association at Dover, 1899.] 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 211 
 
 mass of waters filling the ocean troughs is nearly in 
 the proportion of 1 to 30. 
 
 It is curious that the deepest sounding recorded by 
 the Challenger in the N.-W. Pacific registered a depth 
 of about five miles and a quarter — a depth which 
 closely corresponds with the elevation above sea-level 
 of the loftiest known point of land — namely, the 
 summit of Mount Everest, in the Himalayas, which 
 is 29,002 feet, or very nearly 5 J miles. We must 
 remember, however, that the one measurement is that 
 of a mere peak, while the other probably gives the 
 depth of an extended trough. 
 
 We may thus realise how irregular are the contour 
 lines of the globe, and how deep the depressions and 
 abysses concealed from our view by seas and oceans. 
 Could all these waters be drained ofi" from the surface, 
 our earth would present the aspect of a solid sphere 
 everywhere wrinkled and deeply pitted. Nevertheless, 
 its actual dimensions are so great that mountains five 
 miles high and ocean troughs five miles deep bear no 
 greater relation to the bulk of the globe than the 
 irregularities on the skin of an orange. 
 
 Turning to the dry land, we find mountain - chains 
 in strong relief on the surface, all of them exhibiting 
 the same general characters, as if due to one general 
 cause. There is also a close identity in their features 
 on one continent and those of the same class on 
 another. 
 
 The same resemblance is maintained likewise among 
 the rivers, plains, and table-lands of the world. We 
 everywhere find characters in common, and all seem- 
 ingly due to like conditions. 
 
 But there are other features more special, such as 
 lakes, which, while so numerous in most northern 
 
212 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 regions that they often form a network over the land, 
 are rare and almost unknown in other regions. Then 
 there are volcanoes, belting the coasts of some lands 
 and breaking the solitudes of the great oceans, but 
 marked by their absence in the interior of the great 
 continents. 
 
 There are also the more peaceful features of coral 
 islands and coral reefs raised in the deep warm oceans 
 by the little coral polype, by whose secretions from 
 the sea-water, reefs and entire islands — all formed by 
 these minute animal organisms — are incessantly being 
 built up. 
 
 Such are the materials and the structure of the face 
 of the globe, and such are the more salient features 
 affecting its crust. 
 
 It is indisputable that there ever have been deforming 
 and wearing-down forces at work, constantly modifying 
 the earth's crust — the one due to contraction and 
 shrinking of the crust from internal causes which have 
 produced elevations and depressions of the surface, and 
 the other to the weathering and sculpturing of the 
 surface by atmospheric agencies. We shall now briefly 
 review the value attached to these several agencies 
 during the last fifty years. 
 
 The dry land of the globe is of two kinds — the one 
 consisting of sedimentary strata formed in the old seas 
 during long geological times, and the other by masses 
 of igneous rocks, either contemporaneous with the sedi- 
 mentary rocks themselves, or else subsequently pro- 
 truded through them. To those of our readers who are 
 not geologists, it may be well to mention that it is 
 clearly proved, from the presence of marine fossils in 
 sedimentary strata, that all lands at some time or other 
 have been under water, and that although the strata 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 213 
 
 are now disturbed and raised up into continental areas 
 with their tilted mountain-ranges, all lands formed by 
 sedimentary marine deposits must originally of neces- 
 sity have been level and uniform. 
 
 Fifty years ago it was supposed that not only had all 
 dry land been at one period or another successively 
 under water, but that vice versd the beds of the great 
 ocean had formerly from time to time been dry land — 
 in short, that there had been frequent interchange of 
 conditions between one and the other. But of late 
 years this opinion has been questioned, especially by 
 Dana and other American geologists, and there is a 
 growing belief that continents, though frequently sub- 
 merged, have not for a long geological period changed 
 places with the deep ocean-beds — that although vary- 
 ing in form, continents have long occupied nearly the 
 position that they now do, and that the subsidence of 
 the land and the elevation of the sea-bed have only 
 been over limited areas for limited time. 
 
 This new view finds support in the circumstance that 
 many of the centres of the great continents consist of 
 the fundamental [Archaean] crystalline rocks, round 
 which successively wrap the Primary and Secondary 
 and other newer sedimentary strata. 
 
 But the marine sediments constituting so large a 
 portion of the continents show, at all events, that these 
 lands have been beds of seas, and even of deep seas ; 
 and if beds of seas, some portions of the sea or ocean 
 beds (varying from time to time in extent) have almost 
 certainly been raised to balance the relative amount of 
 water and dry land. It is evident also from the flora 
 and fauna of islands of the Pacific and those of other 
 seas that many of these islands must have been con- 
 nected with the present continents by dry land, and 
 
214 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 that the continents occupied part of the present ocean 
 area. It is therefore a question how far the ocean 
 troughs may have the antiquity assigned to them : we 
 cannot help thinking that the older and more permanent 
 depressions have been confined to very limited areas. 
 
 At the same time, if, as there is some reason to sup- 
 pose, the ocean troughs are deeper now than in the 
 earlier ages of the world, the seas then — while they 
 were shallower — must have spread over a greater super- 
 ficial area of the earth's crust ; so that, small in pro- 
 portion as is the area of the land at the present day 
 compared with that of the ocean, it must have been 
 still smaller in early geological times. This would 
 seem to account for the wide range of the old Silurian 
 seas, when it is probable that only comparatively small 
 and isolated portions of land were emerged above the 
 waste of waters. It is not probable that the great 
 ocean basins are areas of erosion and denudation, for 
 the currents at great depths have not any erosive force, 
 and the finer abyssal sediments have evidently been 
 undisturbed for long ages. So, although the subject is 
 beset with difiiculties, we incline to the belief that in all 
 probability the causes which have given rise to the raised 
 and varied framework of the continents have produced 
 also the great abysses of the oceans : the one may have 
 originated in great anticlinal lines, or lines of upheaval, 
 and the other in vast synclinal lines, or lines of depres- 
 sion — both being the necessary result of the slow secular 
 refrigeration and contraction of the crust of the earth. 
 
 It is quite conceivable that, as with increasing age 
 and constant loss of heat the earth has acquired in- 
 creased rigidity, the great corrugations or wrinkles 
 caused by the contraction of the crust at the later 
 geological periods may have become more pronounced 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 215 
 
 and more permanent. It is quite conceivable, too, that 
 some of the great troughs of the ocean, as in the case of 
 some of the great mountain-chains of the land, may- 
 have been formed at various geological periods, and 
 come down to the present day like the mountain-chains 
 themselves — from Jurassic, from Cretaceous, or from 
 Tertiary periods ; although it may be doubted whether 
 the form of the great ocean basins as they now exist 
 can date far back into the Tertiary period.^ 
 
 But we must not linger over these difficult specula- 
 tions on the origin of ocean basins : let us turn to the 
 more accessible surface features, and consider next the 
 great mountain-chains of the world. 
 
 The interesting question of the origin and rise of 
 mountain -chains has been made the subject of more 
 especial investigation by French and by American than 
 by English geologists. Nearly half a century ago the 
 late Elie de Beaumont gave to the world the result of 
 his researches, in his * Syst^me des Montagues,' in 
 which he propounded a hypothesis that still receives 
 very general acceptance on the Continent, but which, 
 except in a modified view, has found few supporters in 
 this country. 
 
 Assuming for our globe an outer solid crust with a 
 central liquid mass, this distinguished geologist showed 
 that the earth is incessantly losing some portion of its 
 heat by radiation from the surface, and that this pro- 
 cess of cooling, which has been going on at a slow rate 
 from the earliest geological times, causes the central 
 mass to contract and lessen in volume. This lessening 
 of the heated nucleus has led the crust to be contorted 
 in order to fit or adapt itself to the diminished volume 
 
 1 [See also Address to the Geological Section of the British Association 
 at Edinburgh, 1892, by Prof. Charles Lapworth.] 
 
216 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 of the central nucleus, causing the rocks to wrinkle or 
 fold in great corrugations or to fracture, and the frac- 
 tured edges to squeeze up in lines of mountain-chains. 
 
 He showed that mountain-chains have been formed 
 at all geological periods, and that their relative age 
 could be ascertained by determining the age of the 
 tilted mountain strata, and the age of those strata 
 which abut horizontally against their base ; for it is 
 evident that the mountain - range must have been 
 elevated before the deposition of the strata which lie 
 horizontally at their base, and which are unaffected 
 by the disturbances that threw up the mountains. It 
 follows, therefore, that the mountain-chain is older than 
 the horizontal strata and newer than the upheaved 
 strata. Thus the age of any mountain-range is easily 
 determined relatively to the successive groups of strata 
 forming the sedimentary series. 
 
 Elie de Beaumont further argued that, as the crust 
 of the earth must have become thicker by secular 
 refrigeration, it follows that the crust was thinner and 
 less strong at the earlier periods of the earth's history 
 than at the later periods, and, consequently, that the 
 crumplings and mountain - chains, although more fre- 
 quent, were not on so large a scale in early geological 
 times as when the crust had become thicker and more 
 rigid. 
 
 But, although there is no doubt that some of the 
 oldest mountains are very insignificant in height, we 
 have no means of knowing what their original altitude 
 was, or how much of their mass has been removed by 
 wear and denudation. Some of the hills in the neigh- 
 bourhood of St David's, in South Wales, are neither 
 majestic nor lofty, yet they are amongst the earliest 
 [remnants] of our mountain-ranges. 
 
THE FACE OP THE GLOBE. 217 
 
 Or look, again, at a range of hills of much later date, 
 yet still very old, as, for example, at the Mendips in 
 our own country, and the Ardennes in Belgium, both 
 portions of the same mountain-chain, raised before the 
 formation of our Oolitic hills of Bath and Cheltenham, 
 or of the Lias cliflfs of Lyme Kegis. It is possible that 
 this range, which is now of comparative insignificance 
 — in no case attaining a height of 2000 feet in either 
 England or Belgium — formed at one time a lofty 
 mountain-chain. For, judging from the portions that 
 are wanting and have been removed from the Mendips, 
 it has been estimated that those hills may at one time 
 have had an elevation of not less than 6000 to 8000 
 feet above the plains of Somersetshire ; while the 
 Belgian geologists have shown that the Ardennes 
 might have soared from 15,000 to 18,000 feet above 
 the plains of Belgium. This chain, now so unim- 
 portant, may at one time have vied with the later- 
 formed Alps and Apennines in height and grandeur. 
 How strange and striking a picture our corner of 
 Western Europe must have presented in that early 
 age, when the English Channel was not, and when a 
 great chain of mountains, possibly snow-capped, ranged 
 from the Mendips to Westphalia ! The portions which 
 remain are, as it were, the worn-down stumps of this 
 great mountain-chain, the whole of the vast superin- 
 cumbent mass having been removed by wear and 
 denudation continued through long geological times. 
 And such has been the case in many other mountain 
 regions of our globe — on the one hand deformation 
 being produced by subterranean forces, and on the 
 other planing down and levelling by meteorological 
 agencies. 
 
 As we approach more recent geological times, we 
 
218 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 find that the mountains of later date tower in much 
 grander proportions above the surface. Thus, the 
 snowy peaks of the Pyrenees had no existence before 
 the Cretaceous period — that is to say, until after the 
 deposition of our Chalk hills and downs, and therefore 
 many long ages after the Somersetshire Mendips. The 
 grand chain of the Alps had its rise still later, during 
 a period closer upon our own times, long after the 
 deposition of the argillaceous strata on which London 
 stands, and after a great number of the existing forms 
 of life had appeared. And it is supposed that the vast 
 and towering chain of the Andes is, in great part, of 
 yet more recent date. 
 
 These mountain -chains are in lines ranging in all 
 directions, seemingly without plan or order, but Elie 
 de Beaumont argued that, on his hypothesis, they are 
 subject to order and symmetry; for he endeavoured 
 to show that mountains of the same age have the same 
 general direction, and that the direction of the chains 
 has a definite order of relationship, and that between 
 the several directions there is a definite geometrical 
 symmetry : but this part of his great work has been 
 strongly contested. He determined with considerable 
 certainty the age and direction of twenty of the greater 
 mountain-chains, and latterly he came round to the 
 opinion that the process was often repeated on the 
 same line of disturbance, and lasted through several 
 geological periods. Whatever difference of opinion 
 there may be as to the more intricate relations of the 
 mountain-chains, his main propositions form a great 
 mark in the theoretical geology of the last fifty years. 
 
 Another agent of great power, and one which has 
 played a very important part in the configuration of 
 the surface, is the wearing force of glaciers. 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 219 
 
 About fifty years ago Agassiz made the startling 
 announcement that, at a late period of the earth's 
 history, the greater part of Europe was covered with 
 ice and snow. In our day glaciers are only of local 
 occurrence, and are confined in our temperate climates 
 to a few mountain - ranges, eroding and planing the 
 rocks over which they pass, and leaving traces of 
 their passage in lines grooved parallel with the flow 
 of the glacier. This action is now limited to smoothen 
 the rocks and to take ofi" their sharp angles, reducing 
 the angular surfaces and projections to smooth rounded 
 surfaces, known as roches moutonnSes, 
 
 But during the Glacial period, when, according to 
 the theory of Agassiz, our earth passed through a 
 phase of intense cold, it would appear that glaciers 
 had a far wider spread, and, from their size and 
 power, evidently produced results far exceeding any- 
 thing we now witness. At that time glaciers of 
 enormous proportions descended from all the chief 
 mountain - ranges, deepening and eroding the valleys 
 to such an extent in their passage to the plains that 
 in the Alps the moraine debris carried down into the 
 great valley of the Po has formed hills from 1000 to 
 1500 feet in height. Some geologists go so far as to 
 ascribe all the valley -sculpturing of the Alps to this 
 old ice-action. 
 
 The mountains of Scandinavia seem to have been 
 one of the great centres of ice -action during the 
 Glacial period. From their flanks vast glaciers de- 
 scended, deepening the pre-existing valleys, and erod- 
 ing the deep channels now forming the numerous fiords 
 of the Norwegian coast. At one time these glaciers, 
 like the existing glaciers on the coast of Greenland, 
 ran out into the sea, where at intervals masses of 
 
220 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 them floated ofi*, forming icebergs, which carried the 
 rocks of Scandinavia to the shores of Great Britain 
 on one side, and on the other side over the plains of 
 northern Europe. At another time in this period 
 when the land stood higher, some geologists even 
 affirm that the vast mass of ice accumulated on these 
 Scandinavian mountains was not only propelled across 
 to the Shetlands and adjacent islands, but also over 
 the mainland of Scotland and the north of England, 
 sculpturing the hills and valleys, and bringing out in 
 relief many of the features of our own land. Other 
 geologists, however, consider that the glaciation of 
 each district proceeded from a number of local centres. 
 That such centres did exist during one phase of the 
 Glacial period in Wales, Cumberland, and Scotland, 
 is undeniable. 
 
 It has been estimated that the great body of northern 
 European ice was several thousand feet thick. 
 
 A similar mass seems to have traversed the plains 
 and mountains of North America. The great tract of 
 land extending to the Eocky Mountains bears in places 
 all the marks of glacier erosion, and this even up to 
 the height of 5000 feet. The American geologists 
 show that the ice has passed straight over all in- 
 equalities below this level, and thence infer that this 
 great northern ice -cap must in America have had a 
 thickness of not less than 5000 to 6000 feet. 
 
 The phenomena are so general in the northern 
 hemisphere, and their consequences so important, that 
 this glacial theory must be considered as one of the 
 most valuable and positive acquisitions made to geo- 
 logical science during the last fifty years. Unlike 
 some of the other hypotheses advanced during the 
 same period, this glacial theory meets with almost 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 221 
 
 universal acceptance. It explains much which before 
 was unintelligible and perplexing to geologists, who 
 in their endeavours to find a cause for the presence 
 of far-travelled blocks or boulders over these ice- worn 
 surfaces, had resorted to the hypothesis of great 
 " waves of translation," and to frequent diluvial 
 action. 
 
 The aspect that Great Britain presented during 
 that icy reign must have been weird and desolate in 
 the extreme, and not unlike the snowy, frozen picture 
 that Greenland exhibits in the present day. 
 
 In connection with the glacial theory is another most 
 interesting problem — namely, the origin and distribu- 
 tion of lakes. 
 
 Fifty years ago the received theory was that lakes 
 owed their existence to depressions on the surface, or 
 to the damming back by various causes of running 
 water. But with the progress of the glacial theory, 
 certain lake-basins have been referred to the excavating 
 power of great bodies of ice. Many geologists, how- 
 ever, dissent from this view, and although it is now a 
 popular doctrine in England, there is still, as in the 
 case of Uniformitarianism, a powerful minority opposed 
 to it. 
 
 The advocates of the glacier-erosion theory point to 
 the circumstance that lakes are most common in 
 northern latitudes which have been subject to glacier 
 or ice action, that the slopes or sides of the lakes even 
 below the surface of the water are often highly glaci- 
 ated, and that land-ice has passed straight up and over 
 high hills. They assert that the deep narrow lakes 
 which intersect the southern slopes of the Alps have 
 been ploughed out and eroded by the action of glaciers 
 on their descent from these mountains, and they 
 
222 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 account for the large quantity of debris or moraine 
 matter at the mouths of the valleys into which lakes 
 open as having been excavated and ejected from the 
 valleys and lake-basins, whereas their opponents con- 
 sider it really as the scour of the valley only.^ 
 
 The glacier-erosion hypothesis was most ably dis- 
 cussed by the late Dr Hugh Falconer, who during 
 twelve years' wanderings about the Himalayas, and in 
 Cashmere and in Thibet, had rare opportunities for 
 investigating the features of lakes and mountains on a 
 scale far surpassing those of Europe, and who, after his 
 return from the East, made repeated visits to the 
 Italian lakes in order to compare the features of the 
 Alps in this respect with those of the Himalayas. He 
 came to the conclusion that the glacier-erosion theory 
 of lakes was altogether untenable, and argued that the 
 Italian lakes owed their existence to great fissures or 
 depressions formed during the last upheaval of the 
 Alps. These formed lakes with rivers running through 
 them, and before there was time for them to be filled 
 up with silt the Glacial period set in and filled them 
 with a compact body of ice, over which the glaciers 
 with their moraine matter glided, as over an icy bridge, 
 into the distant plain. Dr Falconer insisted that pre- 
 cisely the same '* primary conditions occurred in the 
 great valleys of the Himalayas, but without the same 
 glacial phenomena," or rather without the same exten- 
 sion downwards of the glaciers ; whence " the difi'er- 
 ence of the two cases was, that whereas the ice filled up 
 the lake-basins in the Alps, constituting as it were the 
 conservative means by which those basins were saved 
 
 ^ [The views of the advocates of the glacier-erosion of lake-basins are 
 well expressed by A. R Wallace, ' Fortnightly Review,' November and 
 December 189.3.] 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 223 
 
 from being silted up by alluvial and other matters, in 
 the Himalaya Mountains this conservative action did 
 not take place, and the lake-basins remaining open got 
 filled." Instead of being filled up by ice " which after- 
 wards melted into water, these lake-basins were gradu- 
 ally silted up by enormous boulders, gravel, and 
 alluvium of every kind, which were transported down 
 from the Himalaya Mountains in prodigious quantities 
 by the torrential action of the periodical rains." 
 
 Further, Dr Falconer expressed his opinion that the 
 Italian lakes offer independent difl&culties to the glacier- 
 erosion hypothesis. He contended that the action of 
 glaciers is limited to superficial erosion, to planing 
 and polishing, and is incapable of excavating these 
 fissure-like troughs in which the great Italian lakes lie. 
 He cited the steepness of the slopes, the vast depths of 
 their basins, and their constant form in long, irregular, 
 narrow channels. Lago Maggiore, for example, is 52 
 miles long and 3J to 4 miles wide, and Como 40 miles 
 long with a width of about 3 miles. Further, he laid 
 stress upon their depth, that of Maggiore being 2605 
 feet deep, or 1927 feet below the level of the Mediter- 
 ranean, and he argued that it was physically impossible 
 for a glacier to plough down to such a depth, and then 
 to rise again and move up and excavate against an 
 incline of about 180 feet per mile. 
 
 Dr Falconer also pointed to the valley of the Jordan, 
 which is one of the most remarkable lines of depression 
 on the face of the earth, and demonstrated that it could 
 never have been excavated by glaciers. In its long 
 narrow channel the Jordan plunges through a succession 
 of lakes or troughs with a fall so rapid that its course 
 has been described by this observer as nearly that of 
 a continued cataract. He dwells on its remarkable 
 
224 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 feature, *'the sultry chasm" of the Dead Sea, the sur- 
 face of which is 1292 feet below that of the Mediter- 
 ranean, while the depression of the bottom has been 
 ascertained to be 2446 feet below that level, and 
 reiterates his conviction that erosion by ice or water 
 could never excavate a sudden, irregular, and pre- 
 cipitous "chasm" like this. 
 
 The opponents of the glacier - erosion hypothesis 
 further assert that the fact of lakes being chiefly a 
 feature of mountainous regions is readily to be ac- 
 counted for in the circumstance that the lakes have 
 had their first origin in those synclinal lines of depres- 
 sion which, in the crumpling of the earth's crust, formed, 
 as it were, the counterpart to the anticlinal lines of 
 elevation.^ 
 
 The advocates of the glacier-erosion theory neces- 
 sarily make an exception of the vast lakes of Central 
 Africa, where glaciers are unknown. In their case, as 
 in many others, we are therefore obliged to revert to 
 the old theory, and assign their origin to depressions 
 of the surface, or to transverse depressions in the lake 
 valleys themselves. 
 
 There remains yet another factor in earth-sculpture, 
 more potent than cold and more permanent than glacial 
 epochs. This is the slow and incessant wear and waste 
 caused by atmospheric agents. To these agents we 
 have already made a general allusion, but we will now 
 endeavour to give the reader some estimates of the 
 importance of rain and rivers in levelling the hills and 
 deepening the valleys. These agents, like the dew, 
 may be almost impalpable, yet every particle tells with 
 efiect : each raindrop has its mission and plays its 
 
 1 [See also paper by J. E. Marr, F.RS., on " The Tarns of Lakeland," 
 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vol. li., 1895, p. 35 ; and vol. lii. p. 12.] 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 225 
 
 allotted part in the disintegration of the rocks and in 
 the removal of matter. Thus all the rainfall on the 
 surface, with the exception of one portion which is 
 evaporated, and of another portion which is taken up 
 by vegetation, finds its way in the form of streams and 
 rivers to the sea. These streams and rivers in their 
 passage to the sea carry down with them, every day 
 and hour, material from the lands over which they flow. 
 After heavy rains or in floods all must have noticed the 
 turbid state of river waters. This turbidity, which is 
 due to the clay and sand washed ofi" the area of land 
 drained by the rivers, is carried down in suspension 
 mechanically to the sea. 
 
 In this way every river of importance discharges 
 with its waters a quantity of silt which is dispersed 
 over the adjacent sea-bed, where it helps to form the 
 shoals and sandbanks so common at the mouths of 
 rivers. To this action the great deltas of the world 
 are also due, so that as a matter of fact their rate of 
 growth is a certain measure of the loss of the land. 
 Professor [now Sir Archibald] Geikie, after giving the 
 quantity of sediment carried down annually by six of 
 the great rivers of the world, proceeds to estimate the 
 time it would take to lower the area of drainage by one 
 foot. He considers that the Mississippi efiects this in 
 6000 years, and the Po does the same work in 729 years, 
 the average time for the six rivers being 3154 years. 
 
 But besides the solid material carried down mechan- 
 ically or in suspension, the rivers carry down almost 
 as much mineral matter in a state of solution, or in- 
 visibly. In looking into the clear depths of a swift- 
 flowing stream — clear enough for us to count the 
 pebbles on its bed — we would never suspect that these 
 same sparkling, pellucid waters are charged with solid 
 
 p 
 
226 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 material in a state of solution, and therefore invisible 
 to the eye. 
 
 Thus every day in the year, whether the river be 
 clear or muddy, each gallon of water carried down by 
 the Thames contains 19 grains of dissolved inorganic or 
 mineral matter, removed from the hills. And this is 
 quite distinct from the sediment swept down in floods 
 from the surface. Thus our chalk and other limestone 
 hills, hard and compact as they are, give up a portion 
 of their substance to all the rain-water which passes 
 into them and is afterwards given off again as springs. 
 All limestone hills consist, in fact, of a material which, 
 to a considerable extent, is soluble, and which, when 
 dissolved, shows no more than a lump of sugar in a 
 tumbler of water. 
 
 This gradual destruction of the surface through the 
 agency of rain has gone on through countless ages, and 
 silently and ceaselessly it goes on still. But the forma- 
 tive process through the accumulation of sediment has 
 kept pace with the destructive agent, so that although 
 there is the almost insensible yet powerful planing- 
 down agent in action around us on every side, we know 
 that the material worn off the surface is applied, in 
 the marvellous economy of nature, to the reconstruction 
 in the depths of the seas of the rocks of the future, 
 which in some distant age may be raised to the surface 
 and be eroded in their turn. If denudation had gone 
 on in past times without any corrective process, the 
 land, after the lapse of ages untold, would have been so 
 planed down as to have its level permanently lowered 
 and its inequalities effaced. But throughout all time, 
 as we have before pointed out, there have been move- 
 ments of elevation of the solid crust which have raised 
 large continental tracts and thrown up mountains : 
 
THE FACE OF THE GLOBE. 227 
 
 thus have the ever- varied and picturesque features of 
 the surface of the globe been renewed and maintained. 
 
 Before concluding we would draw attention to one 
 wonderful reconstructive agent, to which the narrow 
 limits of our space only allow the briefest allusion. 
 
 We have already mentioned how all rivers carry 
 down in solution the substance of our limestone hills 
 into the sea. This is not precipitated like the sedi- 
 ments brought down mechanically, but is separated 
 from the water chiefly by living organisms for the pur- 
 poses of growth and life. Thus the moUusca separate 
 the lime for their shells and the fish for their bony 
 skeletons ; but what concerns us more especially is the 
 marvellous result accomplished by the little coral polype 
 in extracting from the sea-water the lime which is 
 necessary for the construction of its cells. To the 
 incessant agency of myriads of these minute polypes 
 living on a common framework are due the great coral 
 reefs and coral islands of tropical seas — these islands 
 after a time often becoming so consolidated as to form 
 a limestone as compact and solid as that of our own 
 limestone hills, many of which, geologists tell us, 
 have the same origin. 
 
 Of the way in which this wonderful transformation 
 is efiected we cannot do better than quote the eloquent 
 and forcible words of Dana, who remarks, in speaking 
 of the soluble matter carried down from the land into 
 the sea, and its reconstruction by the coral polype, 
 *'that we may have in these coral reefs the substance 
 of the rocks from the snow-covered summits of the 
 Himalayas, the limestones of the burning plains of 
 India, or the strata of inaccessible China, removed 
 from their respective districts in imperceptible atoms 
 into the great common receptacle — the ocean — where, 
 
228 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 after circulating over thousands of miles and for un- 
 known time, it is brought to light and rendered tangible 
 again by the incessant labours of millions of minute 
 living gelatinous bodies, and by these insignificant 
 organisms it is built up again into masses almost rival- 
 ling the originals in dimension and importance, but 
 losing in this, its new dress, all traces of its diverse 
 origin and diverse age, and while reappearing in strata, 
 may be as solid as the older rocks, nevertheless amongst 
 the newest of the deposits forming the land of the 
 globe." 
 
 In this short essay we have reviewed a few of the 
 geological theories that have influenced scientific thought 
 during the last fifty years. We have touched briefly 
 upon some of the great questions of terrestrial physics, 
 upon the origin of mountain - chains, of continental 
 areas, of lakes and coral islands, and upon glaciers and 
 other agents of earth-sculpture. We have attempted 
 to show that some of the theories, howsoever ably 
 argued and complete from one point of view, fail to 
 satisfy all the conditions of the problems ; and we cannot 
 also help thinking that the consequences of the hypo- 
 theses advanced from time to time seem too often lost 
 sight of. May it not therefore be a question whether, 
 in another half century, some of the views relating to 
 those great phsyiographical and geological questions 
 which seem to receive such general acceptance in the 
 present day will not have taken a direction very 
 different from that to which the popular belief is now 
 so strongly guiding them? 
 
 " Our little systems have their day ; 
 
 They have their day and cease to be : 
 
 They are but broken lights of Thee, 
 
 And Thou, Lord, art more than they." 
 
CHANNEL TUNNELS AND CHANNEL 
 BRIDGES. 
 
 Geologists tell us that at a period which they term 
 "Recent," though at one too remote to be measured 
 by our chronology, England formed part of the Con- 
 tinent, and was joined to France by a continuity of 
 land. There were then no Straits of Dover ; the island 
 of Great Britain as such had no existence, but was a 
 sea - board of Western Europe, holding, in a more 
 northerly position, the same relation to the mainland 
 as the Spain and Portugal of the present day. It is 
 clear even to an uneducated eye that the high Chalk 
 cliffs on the French side between Calais and Wissant 
 are counterparts of the longer range of Kentish cliffs 
 on the English side — that they are, in short, portions 
 of one formation which formerly spread across the 
 Straits and united the two countries. Nor does the 
 resemblance stop here : we are told that this simi- 
 larity extends to the underlying strata — namely, the 
 Gault and Greensands, the Wealden strata and their 
 diminished equivalent on the French side, and the 
 Kimmeridge Clay and the Oolites, which only come 
 to the surface farther westward. The Channel passage 
 has been gradually eroded or excavated through these 
 various strata until it has assumed its actual propor- 
 tions, insulating England and constituting a wide and 
 
230 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 impassable barrier to a highway between her and the 
 nations to the eastward. And it is a passage which, 
 though very slowly, is yet steadily enlarging. The 
 same forces are at work ; the same, or rather a greater, 
 volume of water is denuding and cutting back, inch 
 by inch, year by year, the sea-wall of Chalk on the 
 Dover shore, and likewise that on the opposite coast 
 of France. 
 
 Long before the adaptation of steam, the possibility 
 of reaching the shores of England by some less uncer- 
 tain route than by navigation of this Channel was a 
 problem that occupied many minds — a problem that, 
 up to the present time, has been practically solved by 
 none. The first novel attempt on record with which 
 we are acquainted was made towards the end of last 
 century, when M. J. P. Blanchard and Dr Jeffries 
 ascended from Dover in a fire-balloon, and alighted 
 on the French coast at Guines, a few miles inland 
 from Calais. The success which attended this ven- 
 ture incited M. Pilatre des Eosiers and M. Komain to 
 imitate their example, and a few months later — on 
 the 15th of June 1785 — they made the ascent from 
 Boulogne with a view to crossing the Channel. At 
 a height of 3600 feet the balloon caught fire, and the 
 ill - fated aeronauts fell lifeless to the ground. An 
 obelisk in the village churchyard of Wimille, on the 
 highroad between Boulogne and Calais, marks the 
 spot, and stands not far from the very region where 
 some day or other a submarine tunnel may possibly 
 rise to the surface. 
 
 Our French neighbours, ever ready to grasp at a 
 brilliant idea, seem to have taken the initiative in 
 the bold scheme for constructing a highway between 
 France and England. In 1802 M. Mathieu submitted 
 
CHANNEL TUNNELS A^D CHANNEL BRIDGES. 231 
 
 a plan to the First Consul, in which he proposed to 
 construct a submarine tunnel from Calais to Dover, 
 formed of a double row of superimposed arches — the 
 lower archway to serve as a subway for drainage, 
 and the upper arch to be paved with a substantial 
 roadway, lighted by long lines of oil - lamps, and 
 traversed by diligences with relays of horses. This 
 tunnel was to be ventilated by means of chimneys 
 formed by iron tubes coming up in mid-channel. 
 
 We can well understand how Napoleon would have 
 welcomed the realisation of such a dream, as year 
 after year he waited, only to learn that that day 
 would never dawn when it would be possible for his 
 flotilla to leave its anchorage in Boulogne Harbour 
 and force a passage to England through our watchful 
 fleet. The idea once started gave birth to several 
 schemes, which, owing to their impracticability, were 
 never known to the many, and have slipped into obliv- 
 ion. It may interest the curious reader if we mention 
 a few of the most noteworthy. 
 
 Amongst the earliest plans brought forward was that 
 suggested by Dr Payerne for a colossal bridge to span 
 the Straits, raised on masses of concrete. Another 
 emanated from MM. Franchot and Tessie, who started 
 the original idea of a roadway laid from coast to coast 
 across the bed of the Channel in a cast-iron tube. 
 
 But these and others were eclipsed by the original- 
 ity of the series of projects propounded by the late 
 M. Thome de Gamond, which were more remarkable 
 for boldness than for their practicability. As a young 
 engineer, his professional duties had made him well 
 acquainted with the hydrography of the Channel. 
 Unlike most projectors, this enthusiastic explorer was 
 often the first to see the difficulties of his own designs. 
 
232 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 and to withdraw them successively in favour of fresh 
 schemes, for the suggestion of which he showed singular 
 aptitude. His many efforts for the cause in which he 
 took so keen an interest we think it well to record here. 
 
 Doubtless many of the travellers who cross from 
 Paris to London, and who suffer all the miseries of a 
 rough passage, look upon the Channel as a fathomless 
 abyss. But the fact is, that if St Paul's Cathedral 
 were placed in the deepest part of the Channel, the 
 whole of the dome would stand above water. For in 
 its deepest parts the depth of the sea does not exceed 
 188 feet, and for a long distance from shore it does not 
 exceed a depth of 50 feet, while for two miles outside 
 the Calais coast the soundings are only in aboijt 20 
 feet of water. 
 
 M. Thome de Gamond's first proposition, in 1834, 
 was that of an iron tube lined with masonry, laid at 
 the bottom of the Strait. For this purpose he pointed 
 out that it would be necessary to level the bed of the 
 sea at depths varying from about 60 feet to 186 feet, 
 which, he justly observed, was not an easy operation. 
 For the execution of this plan he estimated that a sum 
 of at least £18,400,000 would be required. This was a 
 high price for a rather venturesome work, and it found 
 no supporters. 
 
 In 1836 he next tried how a bridge could be carried 
 across the Straits between Cape Blancnez and the 
 South Foreland. His ideas on this subject were of 
 surpassing magnitude. We may give the reader some 
 notion of this by mentioning that to admit of the 
 passage of ships the arches of his bridge were to rise 
 171 feet above the sea, so that in the deepest parts of 
 the Channel the height of the arches from sea-bed to 
 keystone would be at least 378 feet, or higher than St 
 
CHANNEL TUNNELS AND CHANNEL BRIDGES. 233 
 
 Paul's Cathedral. Its cost was to be in proportion, 
 amounting in all to £160,000,000. 
 
 Then in 1837 came the project of a gigantic ferry- 
 between the South Foreland and Cape Blancnez. To 
 shorten the distance two stone piers, each about five 
 miles long, were to be thrown out from each shore, 
 leaving an interval between their two ends of eleven 
 and a half miles. Two spacious harbours formed at 
 the extremities of the two piers were to receive the 
 ferry-boat intended to make the passage. The esti- 
 mated expense of this scheme amounted only to 
 £9,200,000. 
 
 There was still, however, one other scheme, which 
 occurred to him in 1840 — viz., that of rejoining Eng- 
 land to the Continent by means of a continuous isth- 
 mus of stonework, leaving three navigable channels 
 which were to be passed over by movable bridges. But 
 he mentions several formidable objections which were 
 raised to this isthmus, one of which " consisted in the 
 obstinate resistance of mariners, who objected to be 
 obliged to work their ships through the narrow channels 
 left by this work," and another being the estimated 
 cost, which amounted to £33,600,000. 
 
 Feeling the difficulties of all these schemes, M. Thom6 
 de Gamond next turned his attention to the under- 
 ground structure of the Channel with the view to a 
 tunnel, and for that purpose made a fresh geological 
 survey of both coasts. After making himself acquainted 
 with the superposition of the strata in the Boulonnais 
 and opposite English shore, he next sought to de- 
 termine their range under the Channel. After tracing 
 by means of the dredge the Portland beds from Cape 
 Grisnez to the Varne Shoal — a reef in mid-channel, the 
 summit of which lies only 3 feet under low-water level 
 
234 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 — he proceeded to ascertain the character of the ground 
 between the Varne and the neighbourhood of Folke- 
 stone. The sounding-line and lance had brought up in 
 depths of 98 feet traces of a clay the geological nature 
 of which he wished to determine with precision. For 
 this purpose larger specimens were required, and to 
 obtain these he made a series of descents to the bed of 
 the Channel. 
 
 The quaint account of his safety equipment for diving 
 in water from sixteen to eighteen fathoms deep is given 
 in detail. Weighted with 180 lb. of flint and wearing 
 an air-belt of bladders, a stout safety-line was attached 
 to his girdle, and another to his left arm as an alarm 
 signal. A knife hung from the intrepid explorer's left 
 hand and a spatula from his right, the former to cut 
 away the flint-bags after a specimen of the clay had 
 been secured and pocketed in the receptacle which 
 hung in front of his girdle. His ears were plugged and 
 covered over with oiled lint, and a wadded cotton cap 
 was worn over this. At the last moment he filled his 
 mouth with olive-oil, having, like the sponge-divers of 
 the Mediterranean, previously fortified himself by a cup 
 of cafe noir. 
 
 He thus made the descent successfully three times in 
 one day, extending his observations over two-thirds of 
 a mile. " In fact, hardly had I reached the ground, on 
 which my bags of stone fell with a shock for which I 
 was prepared, than to drive my spatula into the clay, 
 to dig up a piece, to seize it, to throw it into my 
 pocket, then to cut the strings which tied the ballast 
 to my legs and leave all, was the affair of a very brief 
 moment, which I was careful not to prolong." His 
 record of the appearance of the sea at depths is not 
 without interest. 
 
CHANNEL TUNNELS AND CHANNEL BRIDGES. 235 
 
 In these rapid descents I could only cast a very furtive 
 glance over the bed of the sea, which was in this place quite 
 dark when the sun was obscured. This darkness arose from 
 the very deep colour of the ground in that region. But when 
 the sun shone — and this was the case during my first two 
 descents — the liquid medium assumed a rather milky appear- 
 ance, transparent enough, and one could very well distinguish 
 the remains of white shells, with which the dark bed of the 
 sea seemed to be strewn. I even saw spotted bodies pass with 
 a rapid movement, and these I judged to be shoals of flat fish 
 of the sole or skate family, disturbed by my presence. 
 
 It was on ascending from my third and last visit to the bed 
 of the sea that I was attacked by some carnivorous fish, which 
 seized me by the legs and arms. One of them bit me on the 
 chin, and would at the same time have attacked my throat, if 
 it had not been preserved by a thick handkerchief. I rid 
 myself promptly of this one, which caused me sharp pain, and 
 which left me as soon as my hand touched it. I thought my- 
 self lost. However, preserved more by an instinctive energy 
 than an act of volition, I was fortunate enough not to open my 
 moutli, and I reappeared on the top of the water after being 
 immersed fifty-two seconds. My men saw one of the monsters 
 which had assailed me, and which did not leave me until I 
 reached the surface. They were conger-eels. 
 
 Without loss of time the half-drowned diver was 
 hauled into the vessel, exulting in the discovery that 
 the specimen of clay brought up in his pocket from the 
 bed of the Channel was " Weald Clay identical with 
 that which I had known in England on the low plains 
 of Kent bordering the Straits." Thus his determined 
 exertions were at last rewarded. 
 
 The scheme which he brought forward in 1856, and 
 which resulted from these observations, was that for a 
 submarine tunnel from Eastwear Bay, near Folkestone, 
 to Cape Grisnez, with a central station at the Varne, 
 above water-level. Without reference to the highly 
 
236 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 permeable character of the Great Oolite, the tunnel was 
 to be begun in that formation near Marquise, and then 
 to be driven boldly through the Oxford Clay, Coral 
 Rag, Kimmeridge Clay, and the Portland Stone and 
 Sands under the Channel ; then to traverse the Weald 
 Clay, and finally the water-charged Lower Greensand, 
 rising through the Gault to the Chalk on the English 
 coast. Its cost was computed in figures showing a 
 total of £6,800,000 ; but estimates in such a case are 
 unimportant, for at no cost could a tunnel have been 
 driven, as he intended, under the sea, through such 
 formations as the Oolites, Portland Sand, and Lower 
 Greensand. It might as well be attempted to drive 
 one through the Goodwin Sands as through the last, 
 which at Folkestone are not less than 200 to 300 feet 
 thick, and consist almost entirely of soft loose sands. 
 
 Probably few of the many passengers who cross from 
 Folkestone to Boulogne are aware that about mid- 
 channel they pass so near to the dangerous reef of the 
 Varne, the summit of which is only marked by a float- 
 ing light. This reef is composed of sand, with large 
 blocks of Portland sandstone. M. Thome de Gamond's 
 favourite design was to raise an international railway 
 station on this submarine island, which, he urged, could 
 be done at a trifling expense. According to this plan, 
 the Varne was to form a large harbour of refuge, to be 
 furnished with a lighthouse, to have outside quays, 
 besides a large inner port for shipping ; and travellers, 
 who he supposed would embark here for all parts of the 
 world, were to be carried up from the line of railway to 
 the surface platform by a lift. (See Plate, Fig. 2.) 
 
 The whole description of this " Varne Star " harbour 
 reads like the chapter of a romance, and reminds one of 
 the tales in the * Arabian Nights.' Despite the adverse 
 
CHANNEL TUNNELS AND CHANNEL BRIDGES. 237 
 
 views of irate and perplexed seamen, we can sympathise 
 with its author in speaking of his fanciful creation as a 
 "splendid idea"; and we can excuse him for waxing 
 eloquent, and wording its description in glowing, if not 
 poetic, phrase. Its quays, stretching out into the sea, 
 were to be thronged with shipping from many countries, 
 unloading or loading freights brought by the tunnel 
 from all parts of Europe ; its beacon-light was to stand 
 out as a guide to mariners in calm, and point the way to 
 a haven of refuge in stress of weather. In short, the 
 " Varne Star" was to be a perfect focus of international 
 industry and of safety. 
 
 The same designs, considerably altered and modified, 
 were exhibited by their author at the Universal Exhi- 
 bition in Paris of 1867, in the hope of enlisting the 
 interest of the public, who, however, were not to be 
 moved by his attractive diagrams. 
 
 Meanwhile, although fewer plans had emanated from 
 the English side, our great engineers had not been idle. 
 Brunei had already proved the practicability of con- 
 structing a tunnel under water, amid circumstances of 
 extreme difficulty, although it was only after many 
 years of cost and toil that the Thames Tunnel was 
 opened in 1843. It was carried through porous strata, 
 the crown of it in some parts being only a few feet from 
 the bed of the river, with a depth of 50 feet of water 
 above a large portion. The Tower Subway is a better 
 instance, for, having been driven in London Clay, its 
 execution proved easy and rapid. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that although two centuries 
 ago the identity of the Chalk on the opposite coasts 
 was noted and commented upon, it is only of late years 
 that we have acquired sufficient geological knowledge 
 of the strata on both coasts to enable us to speculate 
 
238 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 on what may possibly be their range and thickness 
 under the bed of the Channel. The advance of geo- 
 logical science has now not only demonstrated the 
 nature of the strata on both coasts, but likewise clearly 
 indicated their extension under the Channel, as well as 
 their probable depth and thickness. 
 
 Looking at all these conditions, and after a careful 
 consideration of the subject, our English engineers came 
 to the conclusion that the Chalk formation presents 
 the greatest facilities and the best chances for the 
 construction of a tunnel. This view also found support 
 among many French engineers, and a deputation waited 
 on the late Emperor of the French, whose policy it 
 was to encourage works of public utility. He evinced 
 much interest in the details of the project, and desired 
 that a committee of French and English engineers 
 should be formed for its furtherance. 
 
 Amongst those who took a prominent part in this 
 inquiry were Mr W. Low and Sir John Hawkshaw. 
 The last-named eminent engineer had borings made 
 in 1866 at St Margaret's Bay, near Dover, and at 
 Sangatte, near Calais. The results of these borings 
 proved that at St Margaret's the Chalk beneath the 
 shore had a depth of 545 feet, of which the lower 
 295 feet consist of grey Chalk or Chalk Marl ; and at 
 Sangatte the borehole reached a depth of 551 feet 
 without traversing the Chalk, the lower 284 feet 
 being in the same grey Chalk or Chalk Marl. At 
 the same time he instituted a systematic inspection 
 of the Channel floor. A steamer was fitted out for 
 the purpose, with special apparatus to bring up speci- 
 mens from the bed of the Straits at intervals, the result 
 of which was to show that the Chalk was continuous 
 between the two localities. (See Plate, Fig. 1.) 
 
CHANNEL TUNNELS AND CHANNEL BRIDGES. 239 
 
 Following up these researches, Sir John Hawkshaw, 
 in association with Mr Brunlees, formed a plan for a 
 Channel tunnel through the Lower or Grey Chalk, 
 which in this area is extremely argillaceous and com- 
 pact. In order, however, to guard against the risks 
 arising from any possible faults or fissures, it was 
 decided to carry the tunnel at such a depth that at 
 least 200 feet of strata should intervene between the 
 bed of the Channel and the crown of the tunnel. 
 
 The reader who is desirous of fuller particulars con- 
 cerning this plan will find them in a paper by Mr W. 
 Hawes, read before the Society of Arts on 18th March 
 1874. In this paper Mr Hawes informs us that it 
 is first of all proposed to make shafts and carry 
 preliminary driftways, on a small scale, to such a 
 distance under the sea as would decide the practic- 
 ability of the enterprise on a larger scale. These 
 preliminary works he estimates at £160,000, and 
 he observes that the estimate for the tunnel itself 
 is 10 millions. On this point we cannot do better 
 than quote the remarks made by Sir J. Hawkshaw 
 in discussing Mr Hawes's paper : — 
 
 With regard to this project, it might be well to state that 
 the cost, which had been put at 10 millions, for the construction 
 of the railway beneath the Channel, though it appeared a large 
 sum, really embraced about 10 miles of railway on each side. 
 In order to get to the tunnel, the railway would have to be com- 
 menced in the town of Dover, where a very large station would 
 have to be made, and run from point to point along the coast 
 till it turned down near the South Foreland. When it emerged 
 on the other side on the French coast, several miles of railway 
 would also have to be made, to join it with the Northern of 
 France line, so as to be able to get to Paris and Belguim. In 
 fact, the capital of 10 millions would be for about 31 miles of 
 railway in all. That would make the railway cost £300,000 
 
240 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 per mile, about one-third the cost of the Metropolitan Kailway, 
 and about one-sixth the cost of the railway from Charing Cross 
 to Cannon Street and London Bridge, which he had himself 
 constructed, so that it was not so formidable as it at first sight 
 appeared. 
 
 Such has been the progress of engineering science 
 that thorough ventilation, either during construction 
 or for the permanent submarine railway, has not been 
 considered by either English or French engineers as 
 presenting any insuperable difficulty. Mr Hawes is 
 even sanguine as to the ultimate success of this 
 Channel tunnel as a financial operation. 
 
 This great scheme of a tunnel through the Chalk is 
 that which is best known ; but two very different 
 plans have been brought forward by other engineers. 
 The first of these was suggested in 1861, and again 
 in 1867, by the late Mr James Chalmers, who advo- 
 cated the laying down of a submarine tube in lengths 
 on the bed of the Channel, the water to be pumped 
 out of each segment as attached. 
 
 To avoid some of the difficulties attending this plan 
 Mr Bateman, the eminent engineer of the Glasgow 
 Waterworks, in 1869 brought forward another sim- 
 ilar scheme in conjunction with M. Kevy. By an 
 ingenious device the tunnel was to be lengthened in a 
 movable air-tight cylinder or bell attached to the end 
 of the tube. The probable line suggested was from 
 Dover to Grisnez, and the traffic was to be worked 
 by pneumatic pressure, which would at the same 
 time secure good ventilation. It was estimated that 
 this work might be executed in about five years at a 
 cost of £8,000,000. 
 
 The importance of the subject has naturally at- 
 tracted the attention of geologists as well as engineers. 
 
CHANNEL TUNNELS AND CHANNEL BRIDGES. 241 
 
 since the primary object to be determined — before the 
 skill of the engineer is called into play — is the nature 
 and character of the strata on either side of and under 
 the Straits. It is indispensable to have strata that 
 are impermeable to water, and of sufficient thickness 
 throughout to ensure the tunnel in its entire length 
 being continued if possible in the same formation. 
 
 Taking the strata in the order of their age, we may 
 observe that the London Clay extends from the coast 
 of Essex to the coast of French Flanders, and in a 
 line from St Osyth to Dunkirk is probably 400 feet 
 thick throughout. The mass and the material are 
 therefore perfectly adaptable for a submarine tunnel. 
 To show the facility with which a tunnel can be driven 
 through this formation, we may mention that the 
 Tower Subway, to which we have already referred, is 
 1320 feet long and 7 J feet in diameter. It was driven 
 under the Thames in less than six months, and al- 
 though in one portion only 20 feet from the bed of 
 the river, there was not the smallest leakage in any 
 part. But the great distance between the two shores, 
 measuring eighty miles, is an insuperable objection to 
 the London Clay. 
 
 The Lower Tertiary strata which succeed may be at 
 once dismissed as too permeable and too thin. 
 
 The Chalk, which next underlies, consists of an upper 
 division, which is usually much fissured and admits 
 of the ready passage of water, and of a lower division, 
 which is very argillaceous, and when free from faults 
 and fissures is comparatively water-tight, the water 
 which passes through the upper division being generally 
 thrown out as springs on reaching the chalk marl. At 
 the deep artesian boring at Calais the chalk was found 
 to be as much as 1032 feet thick, and, except a few 
 
 Q 
 
242 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 small Id sufficient springs in the upper part, no water 
 was met with. 
 
 It is a remarkable geological fact, and one bearing 
 much on this inquiry, that in this boring, as well as 
 in that at Guines, the whole of the Oolitic strata were 
 wanting, and that the Cretaceous beds were found to 
 rest directly upon the Palaeozoic rocks, which at Calais 
 are of Carboniferous and at Guines of Devonian age. 
 (See Map.) 
 
 Next, in descending order, comes the Gault, a stiff 
 clay well adapted for tunnelling; but unluckily it is 
 only about 100 feet thick near Folkestone, and thins 
 off to 40 feet on the French coast. 
 
 Below the Gault is the Lower Greensand, which 
 forms the sandy and crumbling cliffs at Folkestone and 
 at Sandgate. It may be at once dismissed on account 
 of its extreme permeability. 
 
 Underneath these come successively the Wealden 
 strata, extending from Eye to Hythe, where they are 
 of very considerable thickness, but thinning off mid- 
 way in the Channel. 
 
 Next succeed the Portland Stone and Sands, through 
 which water passes with facility, and which are there- 
 fore to be avoided. 
 
 Then comes the Kimmeridge Clay, which forms the 
 conspicuous cliffs on each side of Boulogne Harbour. 
 It consists in great part of impermeable clays, with 
 intercalated sands and calcareous beds, the whole 
 attaining there a thickness of above 300 feet on the 
 French side. But from the interesting data furnished 
 by the Battle boring we now know it to have a de- 
 velopment of not less than 650 feet under the Weald 
 of Kent. On the other hand, there is reason to sup- 
 pose that the Portland Stone and Sands thin out as 
 
ST MARGARETS 
 
 SECTION ACROSS THE CHANNEL 
 
 SANGATTE GUlNES 
 
 ■t^f^;^^fe«<"^ 
 
 
 F I G . 5 
 
 Alluvial Bcos 1388 1 
 London Ciav 9B 2 
 
 UWERTERTIARr STRATaIH 3 
 
 C«AIK I I 4. 
 
 CAULT ^H 5 
 
 LOWEH-CRtENSANO ^^ 6 
 
 WCAI.OCN ■■ 7 
 
 KlMHCRIOCeiCUYtaoilTICSTRATA^^ & 
 
 PAL^70IC ROCKS ^g 9 
 
 GEOLOGICAL MAP AND SECTIONS OF PROPOSED CHANNEL TUNNELS. 
 
CHANNEL TUNNELS AND CHANNEL BRIDGES. 243 
 
 they range towards the English coast, so that the 
 Weald Clay may, in the neighbourhood of Hythe, 
 repose directly on the Kimmeridge Clay. Should 
 this be the case, it might be possible to carry a 
 tunnel commencing in the Kimmeridge Clay of the 
 vicinity of Boulogne, and continued in the Wealden 
 Clay on the English coast to the surface near Hythe. 
 
 The Oolitic strata which underlie these beds, and 
 which come to the surface, or underlie the Chalk, 
 farther westward in the Channel, need not be con- 
 sidered, as their permeability and the breadth of the 
 Channel present insurmountable obstacles. 
 
 But below all these formations, with their edges 
 upturned at a high angle, lies the great mass of the 
 old rocks known to geologists as the Palaeozoic series, 
 which here comprise the Coal - measures, with the 
 Devonian and Silurian strata, and consist of shales, 
 coal seams, hard sandstones, limestones, and slates. 
 
 If the Oolitic formations were present everywhere, 
 these old Palaeozoic rocks would, in the Chalk area of 
 the south of England, lie at inaccessible depths, but 
 it is now ascertained that a subterranean ridge of 
 these old rocks extends underground from the Ar- 
 dennes of Belgium to the Mendips in Somersetshire. 
 And there is every probability that the Oolitic strata, 
 which in the Boulonnais thin off against the emerged 
 portion of the ridge, do the same against its under- 
 ground flanks as it trends under South Kent, so that 
 in the district around Dover, and in other parts of 
 East and North Kent, it is probable that the Palaeo- 
 zoic rocks directly underlie the Chalk and Gault, as 
 has been proved to be the case at Kentish Town and 
 Harwich, where they have been met with at the re- 
 spective depths of 1114 feet and 1026 feet. They 
 
244 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 were also found at Calais at 1032 feet, and at Guines 
 at 635 feet, and they come to the surface to the 
 north of Marquise, between Calais and Boulogne. 
 Their more recent discovery under London — viz., at 
 Messrs Meux's brewery at the corner of Tottenham 
 Court Koad — created much public interest, as the bor- 
 ing, after passing through Chalk, Gault, and Oolite, 
 reached rocks containing fossils of Devonian age, 
 corresponding with strata of the same age in the 
 Ardennes. It has been estimated that these old 
 rocks ought to be reached at about 700 to 800 feet 
 from the surface near Dover,^ and possibly at a lesser 
 depth in the neighbourhood of Folkestone ; but at the 
 latter place the Lower Greensand would interfere with 
 access to them. 
 
 Professor [Sir J.] Prestwich, from whose paper ^ to 
 the Institution of Civil Engineers the above geological 
 particulars have been extracted, further points out 
 that where Primary rocks are immediately overlaid 
 by Gault or Chalk all ingress of water is effectually 
 prevented ; and he remarks that in the case of the 
 coal-field of Mons, where 1000 feet of strata highly 
 charged with water immediately overlie the Coal- 
 measures, these latter are kept perfectly dry, notwith- 
 standing that the pressure of water in the overlying 
 water-bearing strata is greater than that of the Channel 
 waters. He explains how the upturned furrowed 
 edges of these old rocks have been filled as it were 
 with a liquid grouting formed by the decomposition 
 
 1 [Coal-measures have actually been proved (in 1890) at a depth of 
 1100 feet 6 inches, t^in a boring at the foot of Shakespeare Cliflf, Dover.] 
 
 2 " On the Geological Conditions affecting the Construction of a Tunnel 
 between England and France " (' Proc. Inst. Civ. Engineers,' vol. xxxvii. 
 p. 135, 1874). See also a paper by W. Topley in 'Popular Science 
 Review,' vol. xiii. p. 394, 1874. 
 
CHANNEL TUNNELS AND CHANNEL BRIDGES. 245 
 
 of the superincumbent strata — this grouting acting 
 like a natural cement and preventing the passage of 
 water. (See Plate, fig. 3.) Professor Prestwich lays 
 stress on this as a point of much importance, and 
 as an argument in favour of the Palaeozoic rocks for 
 submarine work. 
 
 It is further shown that rocks of this class are 
 being actually worked under the sea on the Cumber- 
 land coast, galleries having been carried in the Coal- 
 measures for a length of four miles under the sea 
 with perfect freedom from water, and without difficulty 
 as regards ventilation. 
 
 The Oxford professor therefore concludes that, apart 
 from their lying at so great a depth, these old Palaeo- 
 zoic rocks present most favourable conditions for the 
 piercing of a tunnel, and offer — so far as safety from 
 water is concerned — the surest ground through which 
 to run direct communication between the two countries. 
 
 By engineers and geologists the construction of a 
 tunnel is thus considered practicable, although they do 
 not quite agree as to the choice of the strata. The prob- 
 lem seems to resolve itself into three alternatives : — 
 
 Firstly, The tunnel through the Lower Chalk would 
 involve the least expenditure of capital and time, as 
 the distance between the two coasts is only twenty- 
 one miles, and the tunnel in its entire length could 
 be carried continuously through the one formation. 
 All eyes will watch with eager interest the result of 
 the tentative driftways.^ 
 
 Secondly, Although the Kimmeridge Clay would 
 
 1 [Attention has lately been redirected, by Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, 
 to the proposed tunnel through the Lower Chalk, and he remarks that 
 the driftways which were cut a few years ago have not suflFered any 
 appreciable damage. — Eep. Brit. Assoc, for 1899.] 
 
246 GEOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 necessitate a longer route, still, if the Portland Sands 
 upon further examination should prove to be absent 
 on the English coast, so as to admit of the tunnel 
 being carried direct into the Wealden Clays, the 
 scheme would have its advantage in the thickness 
 and impermeability of the argillaceous strata. It 
 might be possible also to have a shaft midway at the 
 Varne Shoal, which, as we have already observed, is 
 concealed at low tide by only some three feet of water. 
 
 Finally, There would remain the old Palaeozoic rocks 
 advocated by the Oxford professor, which, although in 
 his opinion safe and certain, would entail vast cost, 
 from the depth at which they lie, their hardness, and 
 from the many miles of underground railway needed 
 on either coast to connect the Channel tunnel with 
 the surface lines. 
 
 It is, however, within the range of probabilities that 
 the enterprise which has enabled the French engineers 
 successfully to follow the Coal-measures from Hardingen 
 to near Marquise, may enable them to follow these 
 strata farther towards the coast ; and as the strike of 
 the "measures" trends to the English coast between 
 Folkestone and Dover, it is within the range of pos- 
 sibilities that a coal gallery under the Channel may 
 prove the pioneer of the greater and more important 
 work under consideration. As Professor Prestwich 
 remarked — 
 
 Under any circumstances, it is evident that the difficulties 
 are formidable. Whether or not they are insuperable are 
 questions which may safely be left to our engineers. The 
 many and great obstacles overcome by engineering science of 
 late years, lead us to expect that, should the occasion arise, 
 and the attempt be considered worth the cost, the ability to 
 carry it out would not be wanting. 
 
CHANNEL TUNNELS AND CHANNEL BRIDGES. 247 
 
 We need not enlarge on the boon that a Channel 
 tunnel would be to thousands of travellers and to the 
 many invalids who take flight with the swallows in 
 quest of pleasure or health to the sunny climates of 
 the South, and to the latter of whom especially the 
 steamer passage is always a difficulty and too often 
 a real evil. 
 
 It is possible that this age of enterprise is yet to 
 be signalised by one of the greatest engineering works 
 that the world has ever seen. 
 
 l^P.S. — At the general meeting of the South -Eastern 
 Kailway Company held in January 1881, and since 
 these pages were first printed, it was stated that 
 another line of tunnel w^as contemplated, commencing 
 in the outcrop of the Chalk Marl near Folkestone, 
 and following in the dip of the beds eastward, until 
 the required depth was reached for passing beneath 
 the Channel.] 
 
IV. 
 AN OXFOEDSHIEE RESTING-PLACE 
 
EWELME AND ITS ALMSHOUSE. 
 
 Amongst historical sites in Oxfordshire there is none, 
 to our mind, which has so strong a hold of the imagin- 
 ation as the old-world village of Ewelme — whether 
 we take its position, the scenery that surrounds it, or, 
 above all, the pathetic human interest that pervades its 
 atmosphere. It is situated on the confines of the 
 county, at the head of a little valley which runs up to 
 the foot of the Chilterns, and half hidden among trees. 
 It probably owes its quiet and seclusion to the fact of 
 its not being too accessible to railway travellers, as 
 Wallingford, the nearest station, is four miles distant, 
 while from Oxford we had a drive of seventeen miles. 
 Twice — nay, thrice — we made the pilgrimage to it, on 
 the two last occasions as much fascinated as on the 
 first. The charm of its situation has long been known 
 to artists and to a few Oxford scholars, as well as to 
 students of heraldry, the latter attracted by the two 
 famous monuments in the church. "With the sheltering 
 ridge of the Chiltern Hills on one side, and on the 
 other broad meadows intersected by the winding 
 Thames — above all, with the noble spring to which 
 Ewelme is probably indebted for its name issuing forth 
 in its midst, its position is not surpassed in attractive- 
 ness by that of any other village in England. 
 
 The Saxon form of the name is 0-Ewhylme, signi- 
 fying head of a stream or waterhead ; and although in 
 
252 AN OXFORDSHIRE RESTING-PLACE. 
 
 Domesday Book it is known in its French dress as 
 Lawelme, its designation in Old Latin was Aquelma. 
 The spring — itself well worth a visit — may have first 
 drawn the early British settlers to the site. There is 
 every reason, too, to believe that it was known to the 
 Eomans, since the Ikenild Street passed by Ewelme 
 Common, where coins of Trajan and urns have been 
 found, as well as other Eoman remains. One can 
 imagine the legions on their march along the old 
 military road turning aside to quench their thirst at 
 this permanent natural fountain. It is now enclosed 
 in the garden of the manor-house, the said garden occu- 
 pying a steep slope at the north end of the village. 
 Like almost all chalk water, it is crystal clear and wells 
 up in a small basin made by its own action. As we 
 stood by it involuntarily our thoughts went back to 
 its origin — how the little rain-drops, falling upon the 
 absorbent surface of the chalk hills, sank into the 
 porous rock, and receiving repeated reinforcements 
 from their gathering-ground, the rain-drops ran together, 
 as they sank together, and travelling slowly by under- 
 ground channels, made their escape, after an imprison- 
 ment maybe of months in nature's rocky reservoir, in 
 this form of a beneficent spring. 
 
 But we must not be tempted to linger over the 
 spring and its origin — the aspect of the village as seen 
 in our own day is what concerns us. Although the 
 natural features are so striking — from the abrupt rise 
 of the steep chalk ridge behind, and from the grand old 
 river being barely three miles distant in front — yet the 
 village as a whole presents no notable points. The ir- 
 regular cottages lining the single street or road are 
 nothing remarkable, and are almost all near and below 
 the outflow of the spring, while high towering elms 
 
EWELME AND ITS ALMSHOUSE. 253 
 
 overshadow the church and alms - buildings planted 
 on the slope. With the exception of these, there is 
 nothing to indicate the importance of the Ewelme, 
 which played no inconspicuous part during the tur- 
 bulent times of the Henrys and Edwards. In vain we 
 looked round for vestiges of the stately edifice which 
 once upon a time was the favourite resort of kings and 
 queens : a poor fragment of a crumbling wall is all that 
 remains of the palace, which in its day was described 
 as " magnificent." 
 
 It is not, however, its beauty, nor its salubrity, nor 
 its picturesque position, that has attracted us to 
 Ewelme. It is the human interest that hangs about 
 the place, and which, so to speak, has cast upon us the 
 spell of its fascination. And this interest centres in 
 the little group of buildings represented by the church, 
 school, and Almshouse, or rather in the history and fate 
 of their unhappy founder. 
 
 They stand together only a short way from the 
 spring, and are all in excellent preservation. The 
 church, which we first entered, takes one by surprise, 
 and at a glance we saw that it bears evidence of having 
 been something more than the church of a small 
 country village. The lines of the Perpendicular 
 windows show few symptoms of decay, nor do the 
 massive monuments which record the names of the 
 descendants of "the father of English poetry." The 
 Chaucer monument in St John's Chapel, on the south 
 side of the chancel, contains the tomb of Thomas 
 Chaucer and Matilda his wife, with their recumbent 
 effigies in brass, the walls of this chapel being diapered 
 alternately in red and blue with the letters I.H.S. 
 
 But the most remarkable tomb is that of their 
 daughter, Alice, Duchess of Sufi'olk, widow of the un- 
 
254 AN OXFORDSHIRE RESTING-PLACE. 
 
 fortunate William de la Pole, first Duke of Suffolk, and 
 co-founder with him of the church, the Almshouse, and 
 school. It was through Alice as daughter and heiress 
 of Thomas Chaucer, son of Geoffrey Chaucer, " the great 
 architect of our versification," that Ewelme passed to 
 the family of De la Pole. A life-size figure in alabaster 
 of Alice reclines on a massive sarcophagus, which is 
 surmounted by an elaborately decorated canopy of 
 stone. The figure is represented wearing a ducal 
 coronet and mantle of estate, with the Order of the 
 Garter buckled on her left arm. There is no monu- 
 ment to her ill-fated husband : his remains were laid in 
 the church of Wingfield in Sussex. 
 
 A flight of steps communicating with the church took 
 us down into the quiet quadrangle of the Almshouse, or 
 " God's house," as it was termed. Unlike too many 
 buildings of the same date, which sufi'ered from rough 
 usage during the last Civil Wars, this ancient red brick 
 edifice is in good preservation, and to this day fulfils 
 the pious purpose of its foundation. It still serves, as 
 it served nearly four and a half centuries ago, as a home 
 for thirteen infirm poor men, who, in the words of its 
 *' statutes," "may by no faculte of lawfull crafte gete 
 here bodily sustynnaunce," who *' for lakke of sustyn- 
 naunce and they were not by almesse releyved they 
 lightly perish." 
 
 We had only to enter the " quad " of the Almshouse 
 to realise that, interesting as are the sepulchral monu- 
 ments in the church, they yield in interest to this 
 quaint fragment of medieval life and piety that has sur- 
 vived down to our own bustling times. Outside we had 
 been bufi'eted by squalls and showers, here we seemed 
 to have entered a little world sheltered from every 
 storm. As we stood in the tiny " quad," with the 
 
EWELME AND ITS ALMSHOUSE. 255 
 
 draw-well in the middle, and looked at the carved 
 barge-boards of the upper windows, and at the little 
 cloister or covered way running round the " quad," we 
 felt as if a bit of Old Oxford in miniature had been 
 preserved to us, or as if a bit of the life which had 
 given birth to Oxford and still pervades its quadrangles 
 and buildings had survived in this house of refuge for 
 the aged and infirm poor. Each tenement consists of a 
 living-room on the ground-floor opening on the court, 
 with a sleeping-room above. There are thirteen such 
 dwelling-houses, tenanted by thirteen poor men, who 
 each receive a sum of ten shillings every six weeks. 
 Seven of the pensioners were married men, so at the 
 date of our visit the small community numbered twenty 
 souls. In the " quad " are also the rooms of the Master 
 of the Almshouse, an oflice which was annexed by 
 James I. to the chair of the Kegius Professor of Medi- 
 cine at Oxford, and as such was at this time, therefore, 
 held by Sir Henry Acland, the distinguished Oxford 
 physician. 
 
 The grammar - school adjoining forms part of the 
 foundation, and as its architecture harmonises with that 
 of the Almshouse, the effect as a whole is singularly 
 good. The group of buildings appears to have been 
 begun in 1437, when Henry VI. granted a licence for 
 their projected foundation ; but the statutes of the 
 Almshouse, written on vellum and bearing the single 
 signature " Suffolke," must have been signed after the 
 2nd June 1448, the date on which the founder was 
 created a duke. These statutes occupy nearly fifty 
 pages of MS., and recite in quaint terms the object of 
 the endowment and the rules for the government of 
 the Almshouse. Through the kindness of the [late] 
 Master I was able to look through this curious docu- 
 
256 AN OXFORDSHIRE RESTING-PLACE. 
 
 ment ; with the spelling of a few words modernised the 
 following are the opening sentences : — 
 
 In the name of God. Be it knowne to all trew Cristen 
 pepuU the contents of this present fundacion on seeing, herinoj 
 and understanding. We, Willm. de la Pole, Duke of Suffolke, 
 and Alice my wife, Duchesse of Suffolke desyre helth in body, 
 grace in sowle, and evilasting joy to opteine. Be cause all 
 Criste pepull mekely and devoutly consideryng how by the up- 
 holdyng and maintenyng of divine service. And by the exer- 
 cise of warkes of mercy in the state of this dedely life in the 
 last dredeful day of dome they shall with the mercy of owre 
 lord take here parte and porcion of joy and blysse with them 
 that shall be save aught by reson have a grete and a fervent 
 desire. . . . The might of the fadir, the wysdom of the son, 
 the goodnesse of the holy goste, three persons in one godhede : 
 humbly we beseeche of his grace principally be oure helpe to 
 come and spede the whiche called in and assure : and procede 
 in this manure. 
 
 Might not the rules laid down for the conduct of the 
 thirteen almsmen be applied with benefit to some 
 modern communities? — 
 
 Also we wol and ordeyne that all tyme to com in the which 
 the minister and pore men shall be abydyng in the seide howse 
 or any partye therof, they shall be restfull and pesibill with 
 oute noyse or troubill of here felowship with oute cryyng and 
 grete noyse makyng attendyug to prayers or to redyng or her- 
 yng of vertuys lyvyng or ellis occupied with hones te laboure of 
 here hondys kepyng them selfe from jaynglyng and chydyng 
 and in speciall from fowle, bostfuU and ribawdise talkyng of 
 thyng doon in here dayes thanne afore passed. 
 
 Again : — 
 
 Also as for the forsayde xiii pore men, we woll and ordeyne 
 that one of them wele disposed in wysdome and discrecion be 
 called ministyr to whose office it shall longe trewly to present 
 errors and defawtes of the foresayde pore men to the mastyr 
 withoute fraude or gyle and to ryng the comyn bell to the 
 service, etc. 
 
EWELME AND ITS ALMSHOUSE. 25*7 
 
 Un punctuality at divine service was punished by- 
 reduction, on a sliding-scale, of the pensions : — 
 
 Therefore we wol and ordeyne that yf it so be that any of 
 the forsayde xiii pore men com late to the forsayde service 
 spiritall occupacion or prayours that thanne the Mastyr correcte 
 theyme by the withdrawyng of theyre wages. As if it so be 
 that any of theym be so negligent and slewthfuU that the first 
 psalme of matyns be begon or he com in to his stall that thanne 
 he lese Id. and yf any of thaym be absent to the begynnyng of 
 the fyrst lesson that thanne he lese iid., [and so on]. 
 
 We cannot resist quoting the final paragraph : — 
 
 Finally to speke in this mater we pray and hertely beseech 
 Mayster, techer of gramer, ministyr and pore men now present 
 in the same howse and all aftyrwardis to come that they have 
 and kepe amonge hem selfe continuell charite servyng praysyng 
 and trewly to God and to the persones and sowles forseide aftyr 
 this present ordynaunce so lyvyng porely and mekely specially 
 in spirit in their covirsacion in the seide hows : that aftyr the 
 state of this dedely lyfe they mowe com and inhabite the howse 
 of the kyngdome of heven — the whiche with oure lordes mouth 
 is promysed to all hem the whiche bene pore in spirit. So 
 be yt. 
 
 From beginning to end the statutes inculcate charity, 
 meekness, temperance, and godliness. The spirit that 
 pervades them accords ill with the character that 
 historians generally (with, however, a few notable ex- 
 ceptions) impute to the hapless first Duke of Sufi'olk. 
 
 He also built the palace at Ewelme, of which we 
 have already spoken as having been of great size and 
 splendour. Camden reports that in 1607 it was in a 
 state of decay ; and another writer tells us that " it 
 was a magnificent structure, moated round, and situated 
 in the valley of the village." 
 
 The fate of the unfortunate first Duke of Sufi'olk 
 throws such light on the stormy age in which he 
 
258 AN OXFORDSHIRE RESTING-PLACE. 
 
 lived that we cannot pass it over without some notice. 
 It contrasts strangely with the quiet, unruffled village 
 life of the present day. 
 
 His death is indeed one of the most heart-stirring 
 tragedies of the reign of Henry VI. He attained the 
 highest honours, was the trusted friend of both king 
 and queen ; as a minister he wielded power almost 
 absolute, and it may be that his exceptional success 
 drew upon him the enmity of the people. When 
 sent to France as ambassador with unlimited powers 
 to negotiate the king's marriage with the youthful 
 Margaret of Anjou, he had rashly promised the cession 
 of Maine and Anjou to Eene of Anjou, father of the 
 bride, and though this promise was afterwards ratified 
 by the Council, it was never forgiven by the English 
 nation. The enemies of Suffolk laid hold of any plea 
 to bring forward a charge of treason, yet in the long 
 list of political ofi"ences against him they dared not 
 in his lifetime accuse him of the murder of the king's 
 uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, — a crime, however, 
 which was afterwards currently reported and believed. 
 Was Shakespeare in his play of *' Henry YI." biassed 
 by the popular belief when he painted the ill-starred 
 Suffolk in the blackest colours, and represented him 
 as the prompter and perpetrator of the death of 
 Humphry, Duke of Gloucester ? or was the evidence 
 against him overwhelming? Amongst historians who 
 dissent from this verdict are Whethamstede, Abbot 
 of St Albans, and William of Worcester, who assert 
 that the Duke of Gloucester died a natural death, 
 that " he fell ill immediately after his arrest and died 
 of his illness." This is the testimony of Whethamstede, 
 the devoted friend of the Duke of Gloucester. 
 
 Guilty or guiltless, the popular mind had decided 
 
EWELME AND ITS ALMSHOUSE. 259 
 
 against Suffolk. Kumours ominous to his fame had 
 gathered strength, and hearing of these he rose in his 
 place in Parliament, confronted his enemies, and de- 
 manded what those charges were. Surely he had a 
 claim to be heard. 
 
 He besought the King to recollect that his father had died in 
 the service of his country at Harfleur, his elder brother had 
 fallen in the battle of Agincourt, his second and third brothers 
 had perished at Jargeau, and his youngest brother had expired 
 a hostage in France ; that he himself had been a Knight of the 
 Garter thirty years, had spent thirty-four years in arms, during 
 one-half of which time he had never visited his native country, 
 that he had been fifteen years sworn of the King's Council, that 
 he was born in England, that his inheritance and the inheritance 
 of his children and posterity lay in this country. 
 
 He then asked if it were possible for him to be a 
 traitor to his country, and most solemnly declared 
 his innocence. Nevertheless, a few days later, followed 
 his committal to the Tower on the absurd charge of 
 having provisioned the castle of Wallingford for the 
 purpose of aiding the French invasion of England. 
 When he appeared before the House of Lords to 
 answer this and other political charges, the chief of 
 which was a design to dethrone the King, Suffolk fell 
 on his knees before Henry and in the most impressive 
 words declared himself innocent as the babe unborn. 
 Henry, however, realising the necessity of some stern 
 step to appease the people, ordered Suffolk into exile, 
 with, it is said, the secret intention of his recall. 
 
 Before leaving England the exiled Duke repaired 
 to Suffolk, and on the morning of his departure as- 
 sembled the knights and gentlemen of the neighbour- 
 hood, when he swore to them on the Holy Sacrament 
 that he was guiltless of the crimes laid to his charge, 
 
260 AN OXFORDSHIRE RESTING-PLACE. 
 
 and that he should prove his innocence. At the same 
 time he wrote a letter to his son, which is one of the 
 most affecting compositions ever penned, and which must 
 ever be a powerful witness in support of the writer's 
 innocence. Its sadness betrays the misgivings he had 
 as to his own impending fate. In this touching fare- 
 well Suffolk exhorts his son above all to love and 
 serve his God, to be dutiful to his mother, and a true 
 and loyal subject to the King. Let us hope that his 
 words will live when the obloquy which has clouded 
 his name will have faded away. 
 
 The Duke put to sea from Ipswich and made for 
 the coast of France ; but if the ghastly tale be told, 
 it had better be in the words of one of the letters of 
 the Paston Collection, dated 5th May 1450 : — 
 
 The Duke of Suffolke came into the coasts of Kent, full near 
 Dover, with his two ships, and a little spinner ; the which spin- 
 ner he sent with certain letters, by certain of his trusted men 
 unto Calais-ward, to know liow he should be received. And with 
 him met a ship called Nicliolas of the Tower, with other ships 
 waiting on him, and by them that were in the spinner, the 
 master of the Nicholas had knowledge of the Duke's coming. 
 
 When he espied the Duke's ships, he sent forth his boat to 
 weet what they were, and the Duke himself spoke to them and 
 said he was by the King's commandment sent Calais-ward, 
 &c., and they said he must speak with their master. And so 
 he, with two or three of his men, went forth with them in 
 their boat to the Nicholas : and when he came, the master bade 
 him " Welcome, traitor," as men say. 
 
 And, further, the master desired to wete if the shipsmen 
 would hold with the Duke; and they sent word they would 
 not in no wise : and so he was in the Nicholas till Saturday 
 next following. Some say, he wrote much thing to be delivered 
 to the King, but that is not verily known. He had his con- 
 fessor with him, &c., and some say he was arraigned in the ship 
 on their manner, upon the impeachments and found guilty. . . . 
 
EWELME AND ITS ALMSHOUSE. 261 
 
 And in the sight of all his men, he was drawn out of the 
 great ship into the boat, and there was an axe and a stock ; 
 and one of the lewdest of the ship bid him lay down his head, 
 and he should be fairly ferd with, and die on a sword. And took 
 a rusty sword, and smote off his head within half-a-dozen 
 strokes, and took away his gown of russet and his doublet 
 of velvet mailed, and laid his body on the sands of Dover; 
 and some say his head was set on a pole by it, and his men 
 sit on the land by great circumstance and pray. And the 
 sheriff of Kent doth watch the body, and [hath] sent his under- 
 sheriff to the judges to weet what to do, and also to the King 
 [to know] what shall be done. 
 
 Such was the end of the founder of the Ewelme 
 Almshouse, who, only a few days before his death, 
 was **the greatest and most powerful person in the 
 kingdom." 
 
 After his death, his enemies brought forward a bill 
 to attaint his memory, charging him with being ac- 
 cessory to the murder of the Duke of Gloucester ; but 
 Henry, gentle and impassive on otlier occasions, in- 
 dignantly rejected it. 
 
 Our first glimpse of Ewelme Almshouse had been 
 a pleasant surprise ; afterwards, our interest in the 
 mere material structure seemed to wane, and to be 
 more and more drawn to the story of the life of the 
 founder — a record which even now, after the lapse 
 of centuries, we cannot read unmoved. 
 
 On our last visit we approached Ewelme from the 
 Chilterns. After a few miles' drive along the ridge 
 we descended by Swyncombe Park, its ancient church 
 and manor-house embowered among trees. The chalk 
 slopes farther on, instead of presenting the bare and 
 treeless character that they usually exhibit elsewhere, 
 were dotted over, and in places covered, with juniper- 
 trees, the thickets of juniper curiously mingled with 
 
262 AN OXFORDSHIRE RESTING-PLACE. 
 
 Abele - trees (white poplar), the contrast of foliage 
 standing out with telling effect on the pale grey-green 
 of the downs. The young cornfields of the valley 
 made a striking picture, overrun as they were and all 
 aglow with the yellow charlock. 
 
 This very road was probably a favourite ride with 
 the inhabitants of Ewelme Palace, since it led to the 
 beautiful scenery of the Chilterns. We could not but 
 think of those who once upon a time had given celeb- 
 rity to the place, and who had traversed the ground 
 over which we were passing. Did the broken-hearted 
 Margaret of Anjou in the years of her captivity at 
 Wallingford ever gaze on that picturesque escarp- 
 ment, and its curious facing of juniper and white 
 poplar? Or did her weary eyes rest like ours on 
 the glowing cornfields ? When Henry YIII. spent 
 his honeymoon with Jane Seymour at Ewelme Palace, 
 did he lead the luckless bride up these heights with 
 the escort of a gay cavalcade ? Did he traverse diff'er- 
 ent paths when there with Katherine Howard? Or 
 to go back to an earlier date, did Chaucer ever visit 
 his son and his son's wife, through whom the inheritance 
 came to Thomas Chaucer ? And were any of these 
 fair scenes mirrored in his verse ? 
 
 Yet as we think of Ewelme and of those who made 
 it famous, the pathetic and prominent figure is that 
 of William de la Pole, first Duke of Sufi'olk, the warrior 
 statesman to whom the Almshouse and other buildings 
 owe their foundation.^ 
 
 ^ [For further particulars see 'Historical Notices of the Parishes of 
 Swyncombe and Ewelme, in the County of Oxford,' by the Hon. and Rev. 
 H. A. Napier. 4to, Oxford, 1858.] 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Abbeville, 73, 76, 79, 85. 
 Acland, Sir H. D., 60, 255. 
 Adriatic coast, 40. 
 Agassiz, Louis, 195, 219. 
 Almshouse at Ewelme, 251. 
 Alps, 217, 218, 221. 
 Amiens, 79. 
 Ampthill, Lord, 98. 
 Andes, 218. 
 Apennines, 141, 217. 
 Ardennes, 217. 
 Athenaeum Club, 101. 
 Austro-Italian war, 32, 135. 
 Aveiaury, Lord, 87. 
 Avignon, 13, 35. 
 
 Badenoch, Lords of, 168, 169. 
 Ballachulish, 176, 178, 184. 
 Ballads, old French, 105. 
 Balloon ascent, 230. 
 Bane, Allister, 166, 167. 
 Barclay, Mrs, 4, 5. 
 Bateman, J. F., 240. 
 Bath thermal waters, 205. 
 Beaumont, Elie de, 100, 101, 208, 
 
 215, 216, 218. 
 Belloni, Carolina, 97, 109. 
 Blackmount forest, 179. 
 Blanchard, J. P., 230. 
 Bohenie, 196. 
 Bohuntine Hill, 190. 
 Bologna, 40, 41, 136-138. 
 Bomba, King, 111. 
 Botanic Garden, Palermo, 25. 
 Boucher de Perthes, 12 ; recollections 
 
 of, 73. 
 Bourgeois, Abb^, 90. 
 Box, white deal, 108. 
 Bridge, proposed Channel, 231. 
 
 Brigands, 41, 48, 137-139. 
 Brunei, 237. 
 Brunlees, J., 239. 
 BuUen, Rev. R. A., 64, 69. 
 Busk, G., 54-56, 57, 87, 90. 
 Buxton springs, 205. 
 
 Cairns, 197. 
 
 Calais, boring at, 241. 
 
 Camden, 162. 
 
 Cameron, Rev. J., 59. 
 
 Capellini, Prof. G., 139. 
 
 Carpenter, Dr W. B., 90, 163. 
 
 Gary, Rev. H. F., 141, 151. 
 
 Cataclysmic school of geologists, 
 
 208. 
 Catania, 25, 28, 29. 
 Cave of Slaginnan, 166. 
 Caves of Sicily, 20, 23, 27, 124. 
 Cavour, Count, 36-38. 
 Chalmers, J., 240. 
 Chambers, Robert, 194. 
 Channel tunnel, 229. 
 Chateaubriand, 95. 
 Chaucer, 253, 254, 262. 
 Chiltern Hills, 251, 261. 
 Chivalry, 105. 
 Christy, H., 87. 
 Clarke, Mary (Madame Mohl), 94, 101, 
 
 106. 
 Colonna, Duchess, 103. 
 Comyns, the, 166, 168. 
 Conversation, 105. 
 Coral reefs, 227. 
 Cordova, 54. 
 Craik, Mrs, 63. 
 Crust of the earth, 203. 
 Culbin sands, 171-173. 
 Custom-house, Naples, 108. 
 
264 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Dana, Prof. J. D., 227. 
 
 Dante, 49, 141, 151. 
 
 Darent-Hulme, 58, 59, 67. 
 
 Darwin, C, 132, 194. 
 
 Daubeny, Dr C. G. B., 28. 
 
 Dawkins, Prof. W. B., 245. 
 
 De ?a Pole, Wm., 254, 256. 
 
 Dead Sea, 224. 
 
 Delesse, A., 90. 
 
 Deltas, 225. 
 
 Diving in the English Channel, 234, 
 
 235. 
 Dover, borings near, 238, 244. 
 
 Straits of, 229. 
 
 Dunphail, 159, 161, 167. 
 
 Earth's crust, 203. 
 
 Edge worth, Maria, 130. 
 
 Elgin, 169. 
 
 «Enga,' 61. 
 
 Etna, Mount, 29. 
 
 Evans, Sir J., 65, 67, 86, 90. 
 
 Ewelme, 61, 251. 
 
 Fairfax, Mary (Mrs Somerville), 124. 
 
 Falconer, C, 29, 60. 
 
 Dr Hugh, 2, 57, 80, 81, 83, 84, 
 
 87-90, 95, 101, 109, 122, 124, 130, 
 
 131, 135, 139, 222, 223. 
 
 T., 51. 
 
 Findhorn, river, 51, 157. 
 
 Flint implements, 76, 83, 86, 88. 
 
 Floods of Moray, 157-159, 170. 
 
 Florence, 31, 122. 
 
 Flower, J. W., 87. 
 
 Forres, 157-159, 161. 
 
 Franchot, M., 231. 
 
 Galton, SirD., 87. 
 
 Garibaldi, General, 36-38. 
 
 Gaudry, A., 88. 
 
 Geikie, Sir A., 159, 195, 210, 225. 
 
 Genoa, 31, 35, 36. 
 
 Geology, 62. 
 
 and physical geography, 201. 
 
 and the Bible, 5, 6. 
 
 of Straits of Dover, 241. 
 
 Gervais, Prof. P., 16, 17. 
 Gibraltar, 54. 
 Glaciers, 219. 
 Glen Arkaig, 196. 
 
 Glaster (Gleann Glas Dhoire), 
 
 194, 196. 
 
 Gluoy, 191, 192, 194, 196. 
 
 Roy, 186, 188, 194, 196. 
 
 Spean, 186, 194, 196, 197. 
 
 Glen Turret, 191, 192. 
 Glencoe, Pass of, 175, 180. 
 Globe, face of the, 201. 
 Godwin-Austen, R, A. C, 87. 
 Goodwin, Mr, 21, 23, 27. 
 Gordon, Dr R., 16, 17. 
 Gower, 50. 
 
 Greig, Mrs (Mrs Somerville), 123. 
 Guizot, 103, 104. 
 
 ' Harbour Bar,' 61. 
 Hawes, W., 239, 240. 
 Hawkshaw, Sir J., 238, 239. 
 Hubert, E., 88, 90. 
 Helmholtz, Madame, 106. 
 Henry, Dr and Mrs, 23, 25, 28. 
 Henslow, Rev. J. S., 87. 
 Heronry, 165. 
 Himalayas, 211, 222. 
 Hippopotamus, fossil teeth of, 125. 
 Hohenlohe, Prince V., 23, 24. 
 Hopkins, W., 204. 
 Hot springs, 205. 
 Houghton, Lord, 98, 103. 
 Hugel, Baron von, 150. 
 Human jaw, fossil, 89. 
 Hutton, J., 208. 
 Hydrostatic pillars, 20. 
 
 Ice-action, 219. 
 Imola, 42. 
 Italian lakes, 222. 
 
 James, Sir H., 195. 
 
 Jamieson, T. P., 188, 195, 196. 
 
 Jefifries, Dr, 230. 
 
 Joan of Arc, 74. 
 
 Jones, Prof. T. R., 87. 
 
 Jordan valley, 223. 
 
 Jowett, Dr B., 164. 
 
 Kelvin, Lord, 204, 209. 
 
 Lakes, Italian, 40. 
 
 origin of, 221. 
 
 Land, area of, 210, 214. 
 
 Laplace, 122. 
 
 Lapworth, Prof. C, 215. 
 
 Lartet, E., 88, 90. 
 
 Lauder, Sir T. D., 158, 166, 170, 193. 
 
 Lavini, Count S., 21. 
 
 Liddell, Dean, 60. 
 
 Loch Leven, 184. 
 
 Treig, 187, 196. 
 
 Lochaber, 186. 
 Lochindorb, 167-169. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 265 
 
 Low, W., 238. 
 
 Lubbock, Sir J. (Lord Avebury), 87. 
 
 Lucknow, 11. 
 
 Lugard, Sir E., 10, 11. 
 
 Lyell, Sir C, 52, 87, 195, 196, 209. 
 
 Maccagnone, Cave of, 20, 125. 
 M'Call, George, 7. 
 
 Mrs. See Lady Prestwich. 
 
 MacCulloch, Dr J., 193. 
 MacDonalds of Glencoe, 182. 
 Madrid, 56. 
 
 Magenta, battle of, 32, 33. 
 Maggiore, Lake, 223. 
 Man, antiquity of, 86. 
 Mangalavita, Baron A. di, 23. 
 Mantua, 50, 135, 136, 139, 142, 144- 
 
 153. 
 Marcel de Serres, 16. 
 Marr, J. E., 224. 
 Martins, C, 17. 
 Mathieu, M., 230. 
 Mendips, 217. 
 Messina, 28. 
 Milan, 39. 
 Miles, Rev. L., 58. 
 Milne, Miss G. A. (Lady Prestwich), 
 
 birth of, 2 ; first marriage, 7 ; 
 
 second marriage, 58 ; death of, 69. 
 
 R., 7, 10, 51. 
 
 Milne- Edwards, M., 90, 100. 
 
 Milne-Home, D., 194. 
 
 Mines, temperature of deep, 205. 
 
 Mohl, Jules, 93, 101, 102. 
 
 Madame, 12 ; recollections of, 
 
 93. 
 Monadhliath Mountains, 160. 
 Mont Cenis, 34. 
 Moray, 157- 
 
 Bishop of, 2. 
 
 Morrison, Mr, 21. 
 Moulin Quignon, 89. 
 Mountains, old British, 216. 
 
 origin of, 206, 215. 
 
 Murchison, Dr C, 52. 
 
 Sir R. L, 87. 
 
 Mylne, R. W., 87. 
 Myrtle, creeping, 25. 
 
 Napier, Rev. H. A., 262. 
 Naples, 18 ; custom-house at, 108. 
 Napoleon, 231. 
 
 Emperor Louis, 104, 143. 
 
 Nice, 35. 
 
 Nicol, Prof. J., 194. 
 
 Nlmes, 14. 15. 
 
 Ocean-basins, 213, 214. 
 Oceans, depth of, 210, 214. 
 O'Meara, Miss, 96. 
 Orbigny, A. d', 208. 
 Organic deposits, 227. 
 Ossian, 180. 
 Oxford, 60. 
 
 Palermo, 19-28, 125. 
 
 Parallel roads of Glen Roy, 186-198. 
 
 Parry, Sir E., 127. 
 
 Payerne, Dr, 231. 
 
 Pennant, T., 193. 
 
 Perthes, B. de, 12; recollections of, 
 
 73. 
 Physiography, 201, 202. 
 Pietola, 151. 
 
 Piiatre des Rosiers, M., 230. 
 Piombi of Trapani, 28, 111. 
 Playfair, J., 208. 
 Poerio, Baron, 33, 34. 
 Porcari, Prof., 23, 24. 
 Prestwich, Lady, birth of, 2 ; first 
 
 marriage, 7 ; second marriage, 58 ; 
 
 death of, 69. 
 Sir J., 1, 4, 57-61, 63-65, 80, 
 
 84-87, 90-92, 196, 203, 244-246. 
 Prevost, C 209. 
 Proven9al, 105. 
 Pyrenees, 218. 
 
 Quadrilateral, 135. 
 Quatrefages, A. de, 88, 90, 100. 
 
 Raised beaches, 206. 
 
 Rambouillet, Madame de, 94. 
 
 Ramsay, Prof. [Sir] A. C, 87. 
 
 Randolph's Bridge, 157, 166. 
 
 Ravenna, 45-49. 
 
 R^camier, Madame, 94, 95, 99, 105. 
 
 Reggio, 139, 140. 
 
 Relugas, 168. 
 
 Renan, E., 103. 
 
 R^vy, M., 240. 
 
 Rhinoceros, plaster cast of bones of, 
 
 110, 117-119. 
 Rhone, river, 35. 
 Rigollot, Dr, 81. 
 Rimini, 44. 
 River deposits, 225. 
 Rob Roy, 176. 
 Roches moutonn4es, 219. 
 Rogers, Prof., 87, 194. 
 RoUeston, Dr G., 63. 
 Romain, M., 230. 
 Rome, 29-31. 
 
 S 
 
266 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Royal Society, 118. 
 Rumine, Capt., 22. 
 Russell, Odo, 98. 
 Lady William, 98, 100. 
 
 Sainte Beuve, 93. 
 
 St Hilaire, J. G. de, 100. 
 
 Saint John, C. W. G., 160, 163. 
 
 Salon, Paris, 93. 
 
 San Giro, 22, 24, 27, 125. 
 
 Marino, 43, 44. 
 
 Sands of Culbin, 171-173. 
 
 Sangatte, boring at, 238. 
 
 Scenery, origin of, 201. 
 
 Scott, R., 60. 
 
 Serres, Marcel de, 16. 
 
 Sicily, 19-29 ; caves of, 124. 
 
 Sierra Morena, 55, 57. 
 
 Slaginnan, cave of, 166. 
 
 Smyth, Lady, 52. 
 
 Solaroli, Baron and Baroness, 37. 
 
 Somerville, Dr W., 123, 132. 
 
 Mrs, 31 ; evening with, 122. 
 
 Spring at Ewelme, 252. 
 
 Stanley, Dean, 98. 
 
 Stephen, Miss H., 4. 
 
 Stoppani, Prof. A., 39. 
 
 Straits of Dover, 229. 
 
 Suffolk, first Duke of, 254, 256-262. 
 
 Sulphur, 25. 
 
 Sumach, 25. 
 
 Syracusan quarries, 28. 
 
 Temperature, underground, 205. 
 Tessi^, M., 231. 
 
 Thackeray, 99, 100. 
 
 Thames, river, 226. 
 
 Thome de Gamond, M., 231-233, 236. 
 
 Thomson, Sir W. (Lord Kelvin), 204, 
 
 209. 
 Topley, W., 244. 
 Torquay, 35. 
 
 Trapani, dungeons of, 28, 111. 
 Travel, advantages of, 8. 
 Tunnel, Channel, 229. 
 Turin, 31-34. 
 Tyndall, Prof. J., 195. 
 Tyndrum, 175, 177, 178. 
 
 Uniformitarian school of geologists, 
 208. 
 
 Valley Drifts, 92. 
 
 Varne Shoal, 233, 236, 246. 
 
 Venice, 143. 
 
 Verona, 135, 136. 
 
 Vesuvius, 17. 
 
 Vibraye, X. de, 90. 
 
 Victor Emmanuel, King, 131, 143. 
 
 Virgil, 141, 151. 
 
 Wallace, A. R., 222. 
 
 Water, area of, 210, 214. 
 
 Whitaker, W., 70. 
 
 Wild, Rev. T. C., 69. 
 
 Witt, Madame de, 103. 
 
 Wood, Capt. (Col.) and Mrs, 21-23, 
 
 50. 
 Wrangler, Senior, 119. 
 Wye, river, 51, 164. 
 
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