236 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY IN SCOTLAND CHAP, vn 



it to turn it into a hunting ground ? I scarcely believe 

 that, in its full extent, for the district forms as a whole 

 one of the worst soils in England, and it is not likely 

 ever to have been thickly populated in these early 

 times. I think its villainous flint-gravelly soil is the 

 reason why it has remained forest-land so long.' 



From Lewes, in Sussex, he wrote : 'It is here, 

 you know, that the Russian prisoners are. I have 

 not seen any of them. The soldiers are kept in 

 prison, but allowed to walk out under guard. The 

 officers live in lodgings about the town. I have not 

 told you what a beautiful town it is, clean and airy, 

 such as you see nowhere out of England. The 

 houses are built of brick or of chalk-flints. The 

 streets are hilly, and gardens and trees are scattered 

 about the town. A grey old castle, built by the 

 son of William the Conqueror, stands in the middle 

 of it. The River Ouse runs through the town. 

 The surrounding valleys are full of pretty hamlets, 

 snug farms, and well-grown trees, and the sweeping, 

 green, bare chalk-downs swell all around, from the 

 tops of which (800 feet) your eye ranges far across 

 the lower undulations of the Weald of Sussex to 

 the northern escarpment of the Chalk hills twenty 

 miles off.' 



The preparation of the great Welsh Memoir was 

 still Ramsay's chief indoor employment. During 

 wet weather in summer-time, when field-work was 

 impossible, he sat down resolutely to his note-books, 

 maps, and manuscript. In winter he was able to 

 work more continuously on the subject. With the 

 view of securing undisturbed quiet, so unattain- 

 able in London, he used to take quarters with his 

 wife and children in some place where one of the 



