A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 25 



I was, however, received in the kindest manner by 

 my host and hostess. Lady Murchison was indeed 

 one of the most charming of women, and her kindness 

 to me on that occasion has been vividly remembered 

 ever since. Sir Roderick took me down to the 

 Museum of the Geological Society, then in Somerset 

 House; I was there introduced to that excellent 

 geologist, Mr. Lonsdale, then curator of the museum 

 and assistant secretary of the Society. Many interest- 

 ing things were shown to me, especially a remarkable 

 fossil, brought by Murchison from Oehningen in 

 Switzerland, well known to me as the fossil fox. The 

 identification of such fossils in those days was not 

 very exact, but having had at home representations 

 of this specimen, which my father had received from 

 its discoverer, along with a lithograph made from a 

 sketch by Lady Murchison, of the Alpine valley in 

 which it was found, I stood enchanted when the 

 original creature, so often the subject of my geo- 

 logical ponderings, was actually in my hands. 



Another event of my young life was an acquaint- 

 ance with some of the London theatres. I had been 

 from earliest childhood trained to an appreciation of 

 fine acting ; indeed, several members of my mother's 

 family were amateur dramatic artists of no mean 

 order. In Scarborough I had seen Charles Young 

 as Hamlet, the elder Kean as Richard III., Charles 

 Kemble as the Hunchback, and Braham as Tom 

 Bowling. I now saw Liston as Paul Pry, Fanny 

 Kemble in "Francis First," Madame Taglioni in 



