I 4 REMINISCENCES OF 



Murchisons proceeding towards Brora in Scotland, 

 where he had property on which he suspected the 

 Oolitic strata existed, and for the investigation of 

 which the practical lesson he had just received 

 was a valuable preparation. Smith and my father 

 returned on foot to Whitby, chatting very freely by 

 the way. They had traversed many miles of 

 picturesque and ever varying road, when they 

 reached a point where it was about to make a small 

 curve. They had already passed several similar 

 ones, but on reaching the point in question, Smith 

 said to my father : " It is now twenty-eight years 

 "since I came along this road, but if I rightly 

 "remember, when we turn that corner, we shall 

 "see a small bridge over a brook." The words 

 were scarcely out of his mouth, when the two were 

 standing upon the bridge, with the brook brawling 

 beneath their feet. 



The early part of the year 1831 was spent at 

 Thornton, near Pickering, with the Rev. Thomas 

 Irving, master of the small village grammar school. 

 This was to me a delightful time. I made my way 

 thither along with the son of a Scarborough trades- 

 man who was already a pupil in the school, and our 

 journey was characteristic, alike of the inexperience 

 of boyhood and the lack of principle in stage coach 

 officials. We travelled from Scarborough to Stain- 

 ton, a distance of ten miles, by the York mail, on 

 leaving which the guard came to me for the per- 

 quisite, customary in those days. In my ignorance, 



