74 SURVEY UNDER OFFICE OF WORKS CHAP, in 



outstanding unfinished tracts of ground, and joining 

 up lines so as to carry the mapping well to the north. 

 It was only interrupted by a few weeks spent in a visit 

 to his mother and friends in Scotland, during which 

 he passed an evening on the top of Goatfell, renewed 

 his acquaintance with the Glasgow circle, and saw his 

 relatives in Edinburgh and Haddington. 



Back again in Wales, he writes to his mother from 

 Aberaeron on the 2Qth September : Stress of weather 

 has delayed my work, two successive bad days having 

 driven me to the verge of despair, and, had I good 

 opportunity, there is no saying but I might run away 

 to sea. I have been wandering after dinner on the 

 shingly sea-shore. The wind was low, but a heavy 

 smooth swell played the dickens with the pebbles, 

 rattling and rolling them, and grind, grind, grinding 

 them into rounded surfaces as polished as a smooth 

 teapot. Then such piles of watery clouds in the west, 

 full of portentous caverns, through which the upward 

 rays of the sun (himself deep down in the sea) shone 

 with a strange unearthly light, the whilk it was diffi 

 cult to say whether it most resembled a reflected glow 

 from the gates of Heaven or a lurid glare from the 

 portals of Infernality ! 



The Welsh ground that had to be mapped at this 

 time included tracts that lay far from his stations, and 

 necessitated long tramps on foot. Writing to his 

 brother William from Aberystwith on 25th Sep 

 tember, he asks, Will no Christian make me a present 

 of a thousand pounds ? and then I might buy a horse 

 and gig and save my bones. When a man is wearied 

 his brain is barren. That s my case. I could sleep, 

 too, if it weren t that the tea keeps me wakeful. . . . 

 I wish I had four legs and a man s head. I wish I 



