232 
REMARKS ON THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 
make one believe that they had never before enjoyed the extreme felicity of 
seeing a Duke. No Tory town could possibly have equalled the applause which 
greeted the Duke, so much so as to interrupt seriously the progress of the 
evening meetings; and when he condescended to open his mouth the effect was 
wonderful! As a remarkable fact it may be mentioned, that the Duchess 
actually walked to church one morning, a distance of about one hundred yards, a 
piece of condescension which the Newcastle people could not sufficiently appre¬ 
ciate, and which will make a lasting impression upon them. 
As regards your correspondent’s suggestions respecting the Natural-History 
Section, they are, I am sorry to say, too true. In the first place, we had the 
worst accommodation of any Section there—the county courts, where we looked 
like witnesses in the box, with judge, prisoners, &c. Your correspondent states 
it to have been better attended than last year. I did not think so ; but at any 
rate all allow it to be miserably attended compared with the other Sections. If 
Botany were separated from it, I am certain that both it and Zoology would 
prosper by the division; and it is more than probable that if each department 
of Zoology had a separate Section, they would all thrive better. Botan}^ is a 
subject in which many of the fair sex take a most lively interest, and which 
many have forwarded in an eminent degree. Could not a Griffiths or a 
Hutchins be found, if there were any Section to which their communications 
would be acceptable ? and though perhaps, according to present notions, the fair 
sex w r ould not be likely to read them themselves, still they could come from 
them as u corresponding members.” However, as it is, the coupling together of 
all these departments of Natural History answers miserably; a member might 
possess a communication on Botany, interesting to botanists only, but it is an 
infliction on the entomological, conchological, mammalogical, and ornithological 
portion of the Section, and vice versa , with other separate communications. 
One new and very interesting feature of the last meeting was the establish¬ 
ment in Newcastle of an exhibition of models of machinery, specimens of 
manufactures, &c., in connection, I believe, with the exhibition of paintings and 
sculpture, which were liberally thrown open to the members. The paintings and 
sculpture for a commencement were very good, but the exhibition of models, &c., 
was a sealed book as far as understanding them -went, till Friday, when, lo! a 
descriptive catalogue appears, to be of no use to the members, who now are too 
busy to see them again. Many of the models of Coal-mines, by Mr. Thomas 
Sopwith, were very interesting, and the collection was richly indebted to that gen¬ 
tleman for many very ingenious mechanical specimens. The models of the various 
wooden bridges which are now in progress on the different railway lines in the 
neighbourhood of Newcastle were very interesting. The Museum is rendered 
doubly valuable by being connected with the Literary and Philosophical Society, 
