JST. 24-25.] BUSINESS AND SCIENCE. 51 



healthy. We afterwards walked through the garden and visited 

 the chapel, which contained three good Italian paintings. One 

 presented that strange mass of incongruities so common to old 

 religious paintings, St John, in the wilderness, clothed in the 

 skins of wild beasts, had his face decorated with moustaches and 

 a chin piece, and was attended by two Franciscan friars in full 

 costume ! 



We then went to the Franciscan convent it is nearly extinct ; 

 there are only three old ladies there. The national school of 

 Galway is large, and calculated to accommodate eight hundred 

 boys : there were but four hundred there when I saw it. They 

 are taught by the monks. The books are supplied by the Board 

 in Dublin. From the cursory view which I took of them, they 

 appeared to be good and appropriate. It was curious to see boys 

 without shoes and stockings, and with their clothes all in rags, 

 answering questions in geography, mathematics, astronomy, &c. 

 Believe me, my dearest Isabella, your very affectionate brother, 



J. PRESTWICH, Junr. 



A letter of January 2, 1837, written to him at Paris 

 by his sister Kate, contains the following sentence : 

 " Your account of your reception by Madame Colin was 

 really quite affecting, and must have been very gratify- 

 ing to you." 



Very few original letters of the next few years are 

 preserved, with the exception of those addressed to his 

 brother-in-law, Mr Russell Scott, and these are not of 

 general interest, being on family and business affairs. 

 To our geologist Mr Russell Scott was the very kindest 

 brother : he was a man of high character, and one who 

 had the privilege of his friendship can only speak of him 

 with reverence and affection. He saw and appreciated 

 young Prestwich's talent, and appraised the difficulty of 

 his leading two lives the commercial and the geologi- 

 cal without detriment to health. Mr Scott, too, had 

 had business experience, as he had amassed a very con- 



