24 EARLY GEOLOGICAL STUDIES. [1828-30. 



appreciative family audience, which was often in- 

 creased by one or two old school -fellows, who were 

 always welcome. 



At that time geology was not taught anywhere in London. 

 The only nominal instruction then in geology and mineralogy was 

 to be had in three lectures by Dr Turner at the end of his course 

 of forty lectures on chemistry. Parkinson's ' Organic Eemains ' 

 in three quarto volumes and his small octavo in one volume 

 constituted the student's stock-in-trade. 1 



I had a Conularia from Coalbrook Dale. It puzzled me, as it 

 did the Professors of my acquaintance. 2 Chemical analysis led 

 me to the study of rocks and minerals, so it was on that side that 

 I approached geology. The variety of paving-stones which I 

 passed in my daily walks to college caught my attention, and led 

 me to inquire what they were made of and how made. I used 

 also to go to the British Museum in Great Eussell Street to in- 

 spect the organic remains, and pondered especially over the 

 well-preserved and attractive series of the Calcaire Grassier. 3 



The following years my holidays were spent at Broseley in 

 Shropshire, a market-town celebrated for its tobacco-pipes and 

 iron- and coal-works. The latter soon attracted my attention, 

 and I spent hours at the heaps of ironstone, the seam worked 

 being the Pennystone, so rich in marine remains. My chief 

 work there was, however, on a subsequent and longer visit. 



It is pleasant to find that on one of these journeys to 

 Broseley he was most kindly and hospitably received by 

 his grandmother, who, as he reports in a letter to " The 

 Lawn," " entertained me sumptuously." An anecdote 

 is told of her, that when on a visit to Mrs Prestwich, 



1 Sowerby's ( Mineral Conchology/ then in course of publication, was 

 beyond the student's reach. 



2 The true relationship of Conularia has not yet been established, 

 although it is regarded as a Pteropod, belonging to an order of pelagic 

 Mollusca. 



3 A richly fossiliferous series of limestones, &c., equivalent to our 

 Bracklesham Beds. 



