CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. MANTELL. 205 



Heaven bless you all. I continue much as I was, not worse, 

 not better, so I must bear on, and be thankful to the Giver 

 of all good. Our poor friend, Mr. Bakewell, has again had 

 a relapse, and is apparently fast sinking away. A month 

 since I was summoned by his excellent wife to meet their 

 usual medical attendant, and I hurried home from Derby 

 shire, where I had been sojourning a week, to see him. He 

 rallied a little, but is now much worse, and death would 

 indeed be a release. I am just returned from visiting him ; 

 he knew me, pressed my hand most affectionately, but was 

 unable to converse ; he is in a lethargic state ; yet at inter 

 vals is quite himself, as to memory and intellect. When 

 I saw him, four days since, he was capable of conversation, 

 and when I was leaving, expressed a hope soon to be 

 .released from this state of suffering, but that if he lived on, 

 that I would see him again. I think to-day's visit must be 

 my last, for I can now be of no service to him or Mrs. B., 

 and the scene is too much for me in my present state of 

 suffering. 



FROM DR. MANTELL. 



August 28, 1843. 



MY letter, written about a fortnight since in reply to your 

 last favor, will prepare you to hear of the death of my 

 excellent friend, Mr. Bakewell. I did not see him after 



the interview described in my last Mrs. B. wished 



me not to write any notice of his death, or any review of 

 his scientific labors, for our Journals, an injunction with 

 which I complied reluctantly ; for it would have been a 

 melancholy satisfaction to me to have paid a just tribute 

 of respect to the memory of one I so much loved, and who 

 had so greatly contributed to the advancement of knowl 

 edge. His merits, as a geological writer and teacher, have 

 never been so highly appreciated as they deserved to be 

 in this country. He never joined any of our scientific 

 societies ; the only meeting of the Geological society of 



