1 8 4 7 EDWARD FORBES in 



sitting down to sketch. He makes reference in his 

 journal to these pictorial efforts, but it is generally 

 in some such form as, * Forbes made some excellent 

 water-colour drawings ; I spoiled some paper.' 



Among the tastes which these two comrades had 

 in common was a love of antiquities. Ramsay up to the 

 last was always willing to go a long way round for the 

 purpose of visiting a ruined tower or crumbling abbey. 

 He would become enthusiastic as he reconstructed in 

 imagination the design and details of the architecture, 

 and traversed every nook and corner of the ruin, while 

 sometimes the proofs of ruthless destruction would fill 

 him with sadness. Referring to another part of the 

 country, he enters in his journal : * Revisited all the 

 ruins, got to the top of the square tower, and half 

 broke my heart with the contemplation of such glorious 

 structures utterly destroyed.' On one of the excur- 

 sions from Church Stretton his antiquarian soul was 

 stirred within him as they traversed the old Roman 

 road, Watling Street, and found it ' now so overgrown 

 that it is a mere grass walk between hedges and 

 briars.' 



On the 26th October, after a pleasant tour of 

 five weeks, Forbes went back to London, and Ramsay 

 started for some weeks of hard field-work in Mont- 

 gomeryshire. A good deal of that country had 

 already been mapped, but there were some parts of it 

 which, from his more recent experience among the 

 volcanic rocks, needed revision before publication of 

 the maps. Accordingly, he devoted himself to the 

 task of re-examining and completing the geological 

 lines, taking long expeditions, getting over a large 

 tract of ground, and definitely fixing some important 

 points in the geological structure of the region. 



