ROBERT POCOCK. 157 



to Mr. Hamper, the antiquarian of Birmingham, to 

 whom I am known by name, and from which place he 

 had come, and was going out by recommendation 

 of Dr. S. James Smith, the famous botanist, we en- 

 tered into the subject of those sciences, and soon 

 became intimate acquaintances. At night Mr. 

 Pottinger called to bid me farewell, and took 

 my letter to Mr. Clarke, the lecturer on botany at 

 Islington. 



" Thursday, 2lst. Mr. J. Finch called again, and 

 I sold him 300 chalk fossils (on credit) for one guinea, 

 which sum he promised to send over from New York ! 



" Sent two cards of compliments to Van Diemen's 

 Land (yesterday) to Mr. and Mrs. Paul, Mr. Bradley, 

 Dr. Arnold, and Mr. Elliot, by the Avon (they are all 

 respectable persons), desiring they will collect me the 

 curiosities of the island. 



" Friday, 22nd. At sunrise the clouds bore a 

 fine pinky tinge, and I thought before I was up there 

 would have been a fine scenery. Mr. Grafter called 

 and told me a sloop had arrived from Quebec in 

 twenty-one days, the quickest passage known. Was 

 only sixteen days coming from land to land. Said they 

 made the Scilly Islands, and came at the rate of nine 

 miles per hour ! 



" Saturday, 23rd. This day Mr. Peen found a 

 peziza in perfection, south side of Gaily Hill ; but by 

 Mr. Withering^ vol. iv. p. 357, it is Nidularia cam- 

 panulata ! It is very curious. 



" Sunday, 24<th. Read Mr. Fuzzell's tour through 

 Kent, and found errors, having placed some verses 

 which stood at the Hermitage, near Gad's Hill, to 

 Swanscombe. Yet it contained some good criticisms 



