1 74 SURVEY OF THE SNO WDON REGION CHAP, v 



referred to in a letter to William Ramsay, written from 

 Llanfairynghornwy on Christmas Day : * We were 

 detained at Bangor at work till the last moment, and 

 when done we threw ourselves into the rail, and fled 

 away here yesterday evening to eat a Christmas pie 

 with our jolly friends the Williamses, and eke a goose 

 with apple sauce. Marry, come up ; I'll stay a day or 

 two and make myself merry when I am here, for we've 

 been working extra hard. They (the W'ms.) are 

 bricks, and no mistake. It is no joke to enter into a 

 contention with one of the young ladies, Miss Louisa ; 

 she is so witty that you might just as well cut your 

 eye-teeth before you begin.' From the very first he 

 was greatly interested in this bright, clever daughter 

 of the house. In his diary he makes frequent refer- 

 ence to her : ' Wit and a sense of the ludicrous is her 

 characteristic ; sense she has a good deal of, and warm- 

 heartedness no end of.' * Commenced the year (1851) 

 dancing a polka in the hotel ball-room, Chester. 

 Trifling and merry enough, I believe, with the witty 

 Louisa for a partner ; not ominous, I opine, of future 

 partnership.' Whether 'ominous ' or not, the acquaint- 

 ance developed into sincere affection on both sides, 

 and he found here at last the loving and devoted 

 woman who a year and a half afterwards was to become 

 his wife. But these pleasant dissipations, so fitly 

 closing a long and arduous season of field-work, soon 

 came to an end ; and by the 5th of January Ramsay 

 was once more at his post in the Survey Office in 

 London. 



The building in Jermyn Street was now rapidly 

 approaching completion. The collections at Craig's 

 Court were being transferred to their new home. 

 Already the offices of the Survey had been removed. 



