48 REMINISCENCES OF 



In my preface to this latter issue, I said : " No 

 " department of science has made more rapid advances 

 " than archaeology during the last thirty years ; and it 

 " was obvious to me that the crude production of a 

 "youth of seventeen, published in 1834, was altogether 

 " unfit for republication in 1 87 1 . I decided therefore 

 " to rewrite the greater portion of the memoir, and 

 " thus bring it into harmony with the present state of 

 " our knowledge on the subject to which it refers." 



In the summer of 1835 an apparently trivial but 

 really important circumstance occurred ; I received 

 a message from my father, informing me there were 

 two gentlemen at the museum who wished to see 

 me. I went, and found there Mr. Ransome, surgeon 

 of the Manchester Infirmary, and Mr. Binion, his 

 brother-in-law, then one of the partners in the old 

 established firm of calico printers in Manchester, 

 known as John Hoyle & Sons. 



Both these gentlemen were members of the Society 

 of Friends. I showed them some features of 

 geological interest in the rocks constituting the 

 picturesque Castle Hill of Scarborough. 



They afterwards invited me to sup with them at 

 their hotel, in order, as they expressed it, to have 

 a little interchange of ideas. During the evening 

 this interchange was commenced by Mr. Ransome 

 saying rather abruptly : " William Williamson, thou 

 " must not remain at Scarborough ; it is no place for 

 "thee to spend thy life in." Startled by the suggestion, 

 I could only point out, that I saw no other course 



