142 MY LIFE [Chap. 



Mr. William Sayce, was a small, active, dark-haired man, 

 rather talkative and fond of a joke, and as he attended to the 

 surveying business, we saw most of him, and found him a 

 pleasant superior. Both were married and had families of 

 grown-up sons and daughters. They were very hospitable, 

 and we were several times invited to dine or to evening 

 parties at their houses, where we met some of the chief people 

 in the town. 



The offices were situated in a small house in a rather 

 narrow street, the ground-floor being occupied by the partners' 

 private office and a clerk's room, while a large room above 

 was the chief map-drawing room, containing a large table 

 ten or twelve feet long by five or six wide, used for mounting 

 drawing-paper on canvas for large maps, with some smaller 

 tables and desks, while other rooms were used chiefly for 

 writing or store-rooms. There were a good many employees 

 besides ourselves. The chief draughtsman and head of the 

 office in the absence of the principals, was named Stephen 

 Pugh, a thorough Welshman in appearance and speech, and 

 a very pleasant and good-natured man, rather fond of poetry 

 and general literature. The next marked character was a 

 rather tall Irishman, a surveyor, who had the unconscious 

 humour of his race, and was besides looked upon as somewhat 

 of a philosopher. One evening, I remember, after work was 

 over at the office, he undertook to give us an address on 

 Human Nature or some such subject, which consisted of a 

 rather prosy exposition of the ideas of Aristotle and the 

 mediaeval schoolmen on human physiology, without the least 

 conception of the science of the subject at the time he was 

 speaking. There were also a copying clerk, and two or three 

 articled pupils, one or two about my own age, who helped to 

 keep the office lively. In a solitary letter, accidentally pre- 

 served, written at this time to my earliest friend, George Silk, 

 I find the following passage which well expresses the pleasure 

 I felt in getting back to land-surveying : — 



" I think you would like land-surveying, about half in- 

 doors and half outdoors work. It is delightful on a fine 

 summer's day to be (literally) cutting all over the country, 



