2ET. 24.] BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 49 



inclined to be displeased with nothing. I only fear that I shall 

 be satiated with the continuance of enjoyment. Every moment 

 has its pleasure some new scene is unfolded some fresh 

 variation in costume or in manners is exhibited, or another 

 town is to be explored. But the very excess of my curiosity 

 carries with it a drawback which, though trifling on any other 

 occasion, is, at the present time, rather tantalising. I feel 

 dissatisfied if everybody else does not exhibit the same en- 

 thusiasm and the same earnestness in viewing and exploring 

 the country. 



I could and would willingly at any time go without my 

 dinner rather than not see all that may be worth examining in 

 a town when we remain but two or three hours and of course, 

 in order to make the most of so short a time, it would be 

 necessary to use some activity and despatch, or I have no 

 objection to rise at four in the morning for the same object. . . . 



In another letter to this sister, dated from Broseley, 

 September 1836, he alludes to the meeting of the 

 British Association at Bristol, and to its very hospi- 

 table reception there. " All the head men of the 

 Association were received at private houses ; the lesser 

 men were of course obliged to be content with the 

 rascally Bristol inns. I was very well pleased to meet 

 with Rees on Monday morning, more especially as I 

 always feel myself rather solitary in so large an assembly 

 where I am intimate with no one." 



In a rejoinder to the above letter, we quote a passage 

 to show the estimation in which his " den" was held by 

 one member of " The Lawn" household : 



C. Prestwich to J. Prestwich. THE LAWN, Sept. 23, 1836. 



. . . "We have an Irish housemaid ; she is very ignorant 

 and a Catholic nothing will induce her to go into your little 

 back room ; she does not much like arranging the breakfast room. 

 She has taken into her head that you dissect dead bodies, arid 

 that the shark's jaw is what you take them up with. I should 



D 



