274 PREblDENx's ADDBKSS. 



Architectural Dcscnption." He also discoutiuued actire partici- 

 pation in the business of cabinctmaking, and was engaged as a 

 land and mine surveyor, when his attention was attracted to 

 railways, then in their infancy, but occupying the first talents. 

 Hail way surveying and engineering brought him into connection 

 with George and Robert Stephenson, John Buddie, Messrs. Bid- 

 der and Brassey, and with them he surveyed extensively in Eng- 

 land and in Belgium. 



In 1833 he became a member of the Society of Civil Engineers. 

 Mining next engrossed his ripe intellect, and led to his earnest 

 study of Geology, and after that of Botany, and in all these he 

 became proficient. Through Geology it was that he became as- 

 sociated with Professor Phillips, of York, and Dr. Buckland ; he 

 followed up this subject as a labour of love, and was enabled 

 thereby, in conjunction with his already cultivated acquirements, 

 to imagine and bring to perfection a series of Geological Models 

 in coloured woods, of mining districts, showing the stratification 

 of the rocks, the mineral beds or veins, the dykes or faults inter- 

 secting them, and the surface of the district, all in accurate pro- 

 portion. These models soon found their way into all the great 

 Museums of England and of the continents of Europe and America, 

 and obtained for their author tlie Telford Silver ^ledal of the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers, on the Council of wliicli ho had 

 sat for three years. 



In 1834 appeared tlie valuable '* Treatise on Isometrical Draw- 

 ing, as applicable to Geological and Mining Plans, etc., etc., with 

 34 Copper Plate Engravings, by T. Sopwith, Land and Mine 

 Surveyor, etc." It went to a second edition, and was dedicated 

 to J(jhn Buddie, Esq., CoUieiy Viewer and Engineer. 



Before and about this time he publi.slicd several works : *' An 

 Account of the Mining Districts of Alston Moor, Weardale, and 

 Tecsdale, in Cumberland and Durliam ;" "Plan of the Mining 

 District of Alston Moor, etc. ;" " Plan of the Vale of Derwent;'* 

 and " On the ^fining and Geological Phenomena of Xorthumber- 

 land and Durham." He invented a set of Projecting and Parallel 

 llulers for working phms, etc. 



In 1838 Mr. Sopwith was appointed Commissioner tor the 



