356 Sir Charles Lyell. 



doubly interesting by the charm shed over every social relation by 

 Lady Lyell, who won universal esteem by those qualities of manner 

 which were less iirominent in her often abstracted husband. The fol- 

 lowing familiar private letter from the late Di;. Mantell, written in 

 1841 to Prof. Silliman (the elder), gives a vivid sketch of Lyell as he 

 appeai-ed to his scientific associates at the time of his first visit to the 

 United States. As all the parties named in this letter are now passed 

 away there can be no objection to its re-production in this connection. 



"London, June 14th, 1841. 

 "My very dear friend : 



"1 was about to write you to inform you 

 of Mr. Lyell's intentions which he communicated to me but a short 

 time since. I dined with him last week — a farewell party. 

 His charming little wife, a daughter of Mr. Leonard Horner, ac- 

 companies him. I have said so much of you and yours to her that 

 she is quite anxious to visit New Haven ; if she does I am sure you will 

 be delighted with her. And now for a strictly private sketch of my 

 old friend. About twenty years or more ago, one beautiful summer 

 evening, a young Scotchman called at Castle Place (Lewes*) and an- 

 nounced himself as ]\Ir. Lyell, stating that he was fond of geology, had 

 been attending Jameson's lectures at Edingburgh, and had visited his 

 former Alma Mater, Midhurst Grammar School, in the west of Sussex; 

 and that, while rambling about the neighborhood, he found some la- 

 borers quarrying in stone which they called whin. As this term is 

 Scotic^ trap, the young traveler was much puzzled to know how such a 

 rock appeared in the south of England, and upon inquiry of one of the 

 laborers why the stone was so called, the man referred him iM "a mons- 

 trous mon as lived at Lewes, a doctor who knowed all about them things 

 aud got curiosities out of the chalk pits to make physic with." The 

 man, in short, had been formerly a Lewes quarryman, and one of my 

 collectors. Mr. Lyell being alone and on horseback and having noth- 

 ing better to do, rode gently over the South Down, some twenty-five 

 miles, and at the close of the day found himself at my residence. We 

 were mutually pleased with each other ; my few drawers of fossils were 

 soon looked over, but we were in gossip until morning, aud then com- 

 menced a friendship which has continued till now. 



Mr. Lyell was educated for the bar. He practiced on the western 

 circuit for seven or eight years, and he allowed me to correspond with 

 him only during the vacations. His father, who is a Scotch Laird, is 

 still living, and there are several sons and daughters. Mr. Lyell is the 

 eldest, and at the death of the father inherits the family estate, which, 



♦ManteU's place of residence at that time. 



