202 LOSS AND GAIN 



really think that Mrs. Lyell has given us a very important 

 contribution to the history of Science and it does make 

 one ' warm to ' Lyell himself. The accounts of the early 

 history of the Geological, its dinners, &c., are most enter- 

 taining and instructive ; so too is the substance of many 

 of his journeys, in which he chronicles the labours of many 

 good men whose names deserve to be remembered. The 

 account of Cuvier and his way of working is most curious. 

 The letters to Herschel are the best, they are evidently 

 very careful compositions. 



Do you observe certain passages that seem to prove 

 that he never expected to come into the Kinnordy property 

 on his father's death ? and that on the contrary he looked 

 from an early age to providing himself with a modest com- 

 petency for his latter days. 



So the months passed till a fresh thread of happy and sus- 

 taining companionship was woven into the broken fabric of 

 his life. ' No one can have an idea who has not experienced 

 it, what a house of six children is without a female guide let 

 the children behave ever so well ! ' At the end of August 

 1876 he married Hyacinth, daughter of the Kev. W. S. Symonds, 

 Eector of Pendock, Worcestershire, and widow of Sir William 

 Jardine. Her friendship with the Hookers dated from 1864, 

 when her father brought her to the Bath meeting of the British 

 Association ; it was drawn closer from 1869, when they fore- 

 gathered at Sir Charles LyelFs, and visits were frequently 

 exchanged between Kew and Pendock. To native personality, 

 education and environment was added a community of general 

 interests with her husband. Her lines had been cast amidst 

 science and letters. Her father (1818-87) was a considerable 

 geologist and a writer of merit 1 ; Sir William Jardine (1800-74) 

 a lifelong student and writer on Natural History, especially 

 ornithology: 2 



1 Among his scientific books were Stories of the Valley, 1858 ; Old Bones, 

 1859 and 1884 ; Records of the Rocks, 1872. He also wrote two novels, Malvern 

 Chase and Hanley Castle. 



2 He published with Prideaux Selby Illustrations of Ornithology, 1830, edited 

 the Naturalists' Library, 1833-45, contributing sections on birds and fish, 

 founded the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, and for a time was joint 

 editor of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. In 1860 he was appointed a 

 Commissioner on Salmon Fishing. 



