258 FOREIGN TRA VEL CHAP, vm 



as hard, though I was when young merry enough, my 

 mother never grumbled at, but doing a duty was 

 happy in it, and when we began to do well and made 

 her give it up, she almost missed for a time the 

 employment to which she had been used for eighteen 

 years. 



' Ere her death she had thirteen years of peace 

 and quietness, and every year endeared her more to 

 those who knew her best. My wife loved her like a 

 veritable daughter, and all the children that approached 

 her loved her also. Her memory is so pleasant to me, 

 and all her deeds, her courage, kindness, charity, and 

 goodness ; she lived her time in the world so well, and 

 so completely fulfilled a good woman's mission, that 

 though I miss her, and every now and then think " I 

 must write to my mother," yet my sorrow is tempered 

 by a thousand pleasant reflections. She lived to the 

 last happy and contented, beloved by all, happy in all 

 her children, and she scarcely seemed to die, so easy 

 was it to pass from one world to another.' 



On returning to England from this Alpine excur- 

 sion Ramsay had to address himself to a long course 

 of arduous labour. Partly from the necessities of his 

 official position, and partly from his own voluntary 

 act in undertaking various pieces of work outside the 

 claims of the Survey, he was now involved in a greater 

 pressure of mental toil and accompanying worry than 

 had ever befallen him before. The inspecting duty in 

 the field was every year becoming more exacting, as 

 the staff of officers increased and the area of survey 

 augmented. But had that been his chief or only 

 occupation, he would have made it in some measure a 

 kind of holiday employment. But there was now a 

 large and growing amount of literary work thrown 



