ioo PROFESSORSHIP OF GEOLOGY CHAP, iv 



was lovely, and a splendid full-flavoured Havannah 

 we did enjoy, where the two brooks meet to the 

 east of Maes gwyn, reclining on the grass in the 

 sun with all the trees growing green under our very 

 eyes. That was a smoke. Continued the lines from 

 thence all down to Tan y graig, and got home to 

 two cold legs of lamb at six ; Smyth finished the one, 

 and I the other. Wrote letters at night. The com 

 missariat of these Survey parties was sometimes apt 

 to vary a good deal both in quantity and in quality. 

 A few days after the disappearance of the two legs of 

 lamb, Aveline joined the party at Builth, bringing with 

 him a pig s cheek as a contribution to the common 

 larder. Ramsay records the consternation and dis 

 tress of their worthy landlady on discovering that a 

 dog had got into the house, broken the dish, and made 

 off with the pig s cheek. 



3 r ^ June. Out with Aveline at the traps to the 

 north to show him my system of working them, that 

 there might be a unity in the work of the Survey. 

 Got some capital work done to the north of Llwyn 

 Madock. 



^th. Wrote my mother on hearing of the death 

 of Dr. Chalmers. 1 He died suddenly in his bed, of 

 apoplexy, through the night on Sunday, the 3oth. He 

 was the greatest and the best man I ever knew. I 

 am glad I saw him twice within the last two years, 

 and shall often think of his cheerfulness at the family 

 breakfasts, when, after the meal, his daughters, he, and 

 I used to &quot; form the segment of a circle round the fire,&quot; 



1 Thomas Chalmers, born 1780, died 1847 ; the most distinguished preacher 

 of his day in the Church of Scotland. He was for some years minister of the 

 Tron parish in Glasgow, became Professor of Theology in the University of 

 Edinburgh from 1828 to 1843, and was the leading spirit in the secession that 

 founded the Free Church, of which he was the first Moderator. He was on 

 friendly terms with Mrs. Ramsay and her family. 



