^'t4^«- SOME NEW BOOKS. 67 



from MSS. and rare books, pedigrees, plans, and notes relating to 

 antiquities, &c., and many statistics. 



Among the records we find reminiscences of Dr. John Dalton, 

 John Buddie, John Taylor, WilUam and Robert Chambers, Dr. and 

 Mrs. Somerville, Faraday, Babbage, Ruskin, Buckland, Murchison, 

 John Phillips, Lord Armstrong, and others. 



Mr. Sopwith visited Dr. Buckland in 1837, and notes that, "Dr. 

 Buckland's house is one of those venerable fabrics which form the 

 principal quadrangle of Christ's College. As soon as the old-fashioned 

 door is opened, abundant evidence is presented that the residence is 

 that of a zealous disciple of geology. A wide and spacious staircase 

 has its floors, and even part of steps, covered with ammonites, fossil 

 trees and bones, and various other geological fragments, and in the 

 several apartments piles upon piles of books and papers are spread 

 upon tables, chairs, sofas, bookstands, and no small portion on the 

 floor itself." 



Some account is given of a visit, in 1839, to Mr. Babbage, when 

 Mr. Sopwith inspected the famous calculating machine: "After 

 thirteen or fifteen years' labour, and an expenditure of twenty thousand 

 pounds, the engine was suspended for lack of further funds five years 

 ago, and it is yet uncertain whether it will be completed. I saw a 

 portion of it which was placed in the drawing-room, and performed 

 the operation of cubing eighteen in thirteen seconds by merely grinding, 

 or rather by moving a handle backwards and forwards twice." 



In October, 1841, Mr. Sopwith accompanied Dr. Buckland to 

 North Wales, and in the following year to Northumberland, in 

 search of rounded and furrowed rocks, the work of glaciers. A 

 humorous memento of these explorations is an etching of the Pro- 

 fessor — not mentioned in the volume — which was reproduced by Sir 

 A. Geikie in his Life of Murchison, vol. i., p. 309. It represents 

 Buckland equipped for an Arctic climate, and with bags and rolls of 

 maps, standing on a surface scored by " prodigious glacial 

 scratches," and alongside are two blocks, one " scratched by a 

 glacier 33,333 years before the Creation," the other " scratched by 

 a cart-wheel on Waterloo bridge the day before yesterday," the 

 whole " scratched by T. Sopwith." 



Dr. Richardson tells how he first met Mr. Sopwith, in 1856, at 

 Hartwell House, the residence of Dr. John Lee, where from thirty to 

 forty visitors, including many eminent in different branches of 

 science, were at various intervals entertained. The acquaintance 

 then made, ripened into a life-long friendship, and Dr. Richardson was 

 ultimately asked by members of the family to prepare this biography. 

 The task of selecting materials from so copious a diary must 

 have been a difficult one ; the excerpts given are mostly those which 

 have a popular interest. 



Considering that Mr. Sopwith's life-work was connected with 

 engineering, and especially with mining geology, more particulars of 

 his scientific work would have been of value. We read, for instance, 

 on p. 127, that " a very interesting geological survey about Newcastle, 

 carried out by himself and Dr. William Smith, in connection with 

 the new lines of railway then springing up, occupies a good space in 

 the journal, and introduces us to Sir William Jackson Hooker," but 

 no further record is given. Hence, we feel that with the ample 

 material before him, the advice of someone especially interested in 

 Sopwith's work would have been of service to the biographer. 



H. B. W. 



