1846 WINTER LIFE IN LONDON 77 



time to time to return to this hospitable home. 1 From 

 his voluminous correspondence with the Dolaucothi 

 household we shall glean some interesting reminis- 

 cences of his life and work in later years. 



From the brief entries in his memorandum book 

 of 1846 a few quotations may be taken, giving 

 glimpses into his London doings during three months 

 in the early part of the year. 



' 2\st January. Went to Putney with Playfair. 

 Lecture on chemical affinity. Came up to hear 

 Sedgwick's paper on Wales, Cumberland, etc. Made 

 a speech about South Wales. The old man horribly 

 wrong-headed.' This meeting is referred to in a letter 

 of the 3ist January to W. T. Aveline : * Sedgwick is at 

 work attempting to show that we are all wrong, and 

 that all North Wales (!), I think, and all South Wales 

 Cardigan and Caermarthenshire is Upper Silurian. 2 

 He vows that Aberystwith is Ludlow. I flared up 

 the other night, after his paper at the Geological, 

 when he said that that was now the case, and thus we 

 must not leave him the shadow of a leg to stand on. 

 He is not content with the Cambrian, and so, gulping 

 it down, he wheels about ten times, and turns it all in 

 Upper Silurian.' 



' 2th. At the Museum as usual. Had a scramble 

 with Sir H. among the old book-shops after four. 

 Bought an old Beaumont and Fletcher, and a Walton 

 and Cotton. Evening at home. Wrote Eliza. 



\^th February. At home at night reading the fifth 

 edition of the Vestiges [of Creation\. Saw in it things 



1 Among his papers he preserved a clever and amusing sketch of a road map 

 of Wales by Edward Forbes, which showed Dolaucothi in the centre, with roads 

 leading directly to it from every quarter, even the most remote, where Ramsay 

 was stationed. 



2 Yet Sedgwick was partly right. See W. Keeping, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 xxxvii. (1881), p. 141. 



