Ml. 20.] CITY LIFE. 33 



Another friend, 1 the writer of a biographical notice, 

 remarks : 



Looking at it now, it may be regarded as a model of what a 

 memoir should be on such a subject as the coalfield and its asso- 

 ciated strata. The Silurian and Carboniferous rocks, the New 

 Eed Sandstone, the Igneous rocks and the drifts, were all duly 

 described, and, what is more remarkable, considering the youth of 

 the author, the superficial extent of the various rocks was shown 

 on a map of the scale of one inch to a mile, in a manner dif- 

 fering in no very important particulars from the subsequently 

 published map of the Geological Survey. ... So highly indeed 

 would we speak of this work, that had the author done nothing 

 subsequently, we believe it would have entitled him to a per- 

 manent place on the roll of those geologists who have rendered 

 distinguished service. 



In a diary which he kept for the first few months of 

 1832, while practically a City clerk, we are startled to 

 find how often his midday meal was sacrificed in order 

 to provide money for the purchase of philosophical 

 instruments and materials for chemical experiments. 

 This practice had become a regular system. In the 

 first week of January there are four days on which the 

 entry occurs " dined on biscuits." On the 19th we find 

 his dinner consisted of " oranges and biscuits." His 

 usual routine appears to have been at least two hours' 

 work before breakfast, and on his way into the City he 

 seldom missed calling at " Smith's," a shop where he 

 purchased, or had made, much of his chemical and 

 other apparatus. A few extracts from this diary, 

 touching only on his geological and chemical work, 

 will give some idea of its scope. 



Jan. 5. . . . Bought a lot of tubes, bottles, &c. Usual rou- 

 tine of business. Called at Smith's for some apparatus to explain 



1 Mr H. B. Woodward, F.E.S., 'Natural Science 'for August 1896, p. 90. 



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