44 
door dry and ready for burning. Taking a piece in his hand he 
stepped in and asked an old woman inside the house what was the 
price? Bewildered at the sight of the would-be purchaser and the 
article he wanted, she scarcely knew what to say, whereupon 
Buckland gave her fourpence, at which she was greatly pleased (its 
real value being scarce a farthing) and—putting the turf in his pocket, 
te add to his omnivorous collection of all things having the most 
remote bearing upon Geology—walked off, leaving the old lady staring 
and puzzled to think who the gentleman was and what he was going 
to do with it. 
Amongst the MS. notes in the ‘7a zepu éuavtov’ is the following 
entry :— 
“1887—It was whilst at Clifton that for my amusement and 
occupation I took up the subject of my ow dzfe (not likely to be much 
further prolonged) much after the way in which I had already noted 
down and printed for private circulation, “Reminscences of Yarrell 
and Selby ” two or three years back. This occupied me till the latter 
part of the autumn when I placed the MS. in the hands of the printer, 
and the whole was ready for distribution by the end of the year. I 
I did this at the suggestion of one or two friends and for other reasons 
I need not mention here.” 
Mrs. Blomefield told me that ‘Chapters in My Life’ originated 
through a suggestion of Sir Joseph Hooker that every scientific 
man ought to write his own reminiscenses. Acting on this the 
daily journal which he kept supplied all the necessary materials. 
We must now follow him to the scene of his clerical work at 
Swaffham Bulbeck. Early in life he consideres he had fixed 
upon his profession, and relates how he pretended to preach 
a sermon upon Dives and Lazarus from the upturned seat of a 
rush-bottomed nursery chair serving as a pulpit—a well known 
childish love of mimicry familiar to most of us who remember 
nursery days. Whether this was a true indication or not of his 
future profession, we know that this was his fixed determination 
as he grew up. And though once he wavered between the 
medical and clerical profession, and had a strong leaning towards 
