i88i RETIREMENT AND KNIGHTHOOD 349 



to do. The change, however, will be very great, even 

 though the non- official intercourse should continue 

 between us as fast as ever. 



He announced to his friends at Dolaucothi : On 

 the 3ist December I shall retire from the public 

 service, and whether or not there will be another 

 Director-General I do not know. Neither do I quite 

 know how I shall enjoy doing nothing but what I 

 choose to do ; but, on the whole, I think I shall manage 

 very well. They have given me the highest possible 

 pension, and that and our private incomes will enable 

 us to live just as we have been accustomed to do ever 

 since I became Director-General. ... I think that, 

 on the whole, I have been a &quot; fortunate youth.&quot; One 

 thing also pleases me, that I shall be able some time 

 in 1882 to pay a visit to Dolaucothi the beloved, and 

 to lie upon a bank where the wild thyme grows, and 

 where oxlip and the nodding cowslip blows.&quot; 



My address to the geological section of the 

 British Association at York last summer principally 

 dealt with the progress of geology for the last fifty 

 years. In my mind there is no doubt that it is, or was, 

 the last address I shall ever give. 



The other day, as Louisa, Fanny, Dora, and 

 I had arrived at the pudding stage of dinner, a 

 franked letter arrived from Mr. Gladstone, informing 

 me that at the instance of Lord Spencer, who is my 

 official chief, I am required on Wednesday next to go 

 down to Windsor by the i.io P.M. train in levte 

 costume, and from the station, along with others, am 

 to be transported to the castle to be knighted at three. 



On the afternoon of the 3ist December Sir Andrew 

 quitted his desk at the Jermyn Street Museum, and 

 closed his long and honourable career as a civil servant. 



