108 THE GROUND BENEATH US. [l858. 



Leonard Horner, father of Lady Lyell, expresses his 

 interest in our geologist's work : 



L. Horner to J. Prestwich. MANCHESTER, 7th March 1858. 



MY DEAK PRESTWICH, It is only within the last three days 

 that I have had an opportunity of reading " The Ground Beneath 

 Us." Here in the evening, when the spinning -jennies are at 

 rest, and when there are few temptations of parties and learned 

 societies, I get through some very agreeable reading, as we gener- 

 ally bring with us a good supply of books. I do not know when 

 I have read anything geological that has pleased me so much as 

 these three lectures. In a clear attractive style you have de- 

 scribed the great and minute features of the area, not in the 

 least descending to what is commonly called " a popular view," 

 but a masterly sketch, that must be perfectly intelligible to every 

 educated person who for the first time has had geological pheno- 

 mena placed before him, and embracing those great generalisa- 

 tions which must awaken the deepest interest and wonder. 



You will do a great service to the cause of philosophical truth, 

 will awaken a widespread interest in geology, especially among 

 those living in the district you describe, you will give a death- 

 blow among them to the nonsense of Mosaic geology now so 

 widely disseminated, if you will publish these lectures, not by 

 Van Voorst, but by some publisher of extensive connections, 

 such as Longmans or Murray. You have no occasion to add any- 

 thing. I would omit from the title-page "being three lectures 

 on," &c., down to " 1856." You can tell this in a brief preface. 

 If you will do this, the little volume will be translated, I have 

 no doubt, both in French and German. It would be best in 

 12mo, and the two plates might fold lengthways. The only 

 criticism I have to make is to request you to consider what you 

 say at p. 77, that the alterations in the proportions of sea and 

 land could not cause a heat sufficient for the tropical organisms 

 of the London Clay, by reading again Lyell's chapters on Climate 

 in the last edition of his ' Principles.' 



But I have not done with you : follow up the sketch with a 

 volume fully descriptive of the same period. You say, p. 37, " I 

 could have said much more." I hope you will say all you have 

 to say. Yours faithfully, LEONARD HORNER. 



