JET. 57.] ROYAL COMMISSIONS. 211 



be at Bishop's Waltham. On Thursday evening at Southampton. 

 On Friday morning at Eomsey. On Saturday morning at Gran- 

 borne (?). You seem to have a good meeting at Exeter. Believe 

 me to be truly yours, Jos. PRESTWICH. 



During this season the maps for the Royal Water 

 Commission were completed and handed in. Prestwich 

 in after years was heard to say that they had cost 

 him two years of hard work. But as the colouring of 

 these maps for publication was considered too costly, 

 they were relegated to the Stationery Office, where 

 (such was his belief) they have been lying ever since. 

 The subject was one to which he rarely alluded, but 

 when he did so, it was to express his intention to 

 request some friend to ask a question in Parliament 

 as to the fate of his maps. Somehow this was never 

 done. 



In the following letter Sir Roderick Murchison writes 

 in generous terms as to our geologist's work on the 

 Royal Coal Commission : 



Sir R. I. Murchison to J. Prestwich. 



16 BELGRAVE SQUARE, 21st October 1869. 



MY DEAR PRESTWICH, In the little exordium and brief sum- 

 mary with which I commence the Eeport on the labours of the 

 Committee D of the Coal Commission, it is my wish to con- 

 clude the references I make to geological labours in England to 

 strengthen our case, by a citation of the general result of your 

 labours in the district which you undertook to examine. Your 

 own report in extenso will necessarily follow. 



But ad interim a few words of honest praise from your admirer 

 and old friend can do nothing but good, and it will gratify me to 

 have your assent for the insertion in my preamble of the accom- 

 panying paragraph. Yours sincerely, KOD. I. MURCHISON. 



" Even in respect to the well-known coal-fields, parts 



