1 8 FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



with my father. My father was a first-rate man at 

 a country walk, and could tell you all the time about 

 the flowers, flies, stones, and bones you might encounter. 

 But Henslow surpassed him. I remember to this day 

 nearly every word Henslow said, and everything he did 

 on that memorable afternoon nearly fifty years ago. 

 Amongst other things he explained how the rough flint 

 implements recently discovered in river gravels proving 

 man's great antiquity could be shown to owe their 

 shape to blows, each blow causing a " conchoidal " 

 fracture. And he struck with his hammer some very 

 large flints which were lying in a heap in the meadow, 

 and produced the most perfect dome-like broken 

 surface or bulb of percussion. He promised to give 

 me a real palaeolithic flint implement and also a 

 geological hammer. The letter which reached me 

 later in London ran as follows : " Dear incipient 

 Stonecracker Enclosed you will find a draft for 10*. 

 with which, at the shop in Newgate-street, you can 

 obtain a geological hammer identical in all respects 

 with my own. ... In a separate parcel I send you 

 a flint implement which I obtained myself in the 

 gravel pit at St. Acheuil. . . ." The hammer, the 

 flint-axe, and the letter are to this day treasured with 

 deep affection and reverence for the giver, by the 

 boy who was thus so kindly initiated in the " art 

 and mystery' 1 of Stone-crackers. Henslow died in 

 1861 at the age of 65. His daughter was the first 

 wife of Sir Joseph Hooker, the great botanist and 

 traveller, who celebrated his ninetieth birthday in 

 July, 1907, and is still in full mental and bodily 

 health and vigour. 



