My dear Father,

I return M^r Geikie’s letter which I was very much interested in reading.¹ I am extremely glad he wishes to adopt your idea of settlement of the gravel through the melting of snow. I must get his book when it is out, as I shall be curious to see whether he makes any suggestions as to the Celts, and as to the direction which the floods took originally that spread the flints & gravel over the snow; whether it was from the N.W. which would be the direction of the general drainage system when the Solent was a big river.²

I am trudging about here with a hammer & bag & map, and with the help of Ramsay’s capital book one gets a fairly clear idea of the geology; but great areas of carboniferous limestone and millstone grit are rather uninteresting; I hope soon to take a day into a part where the carboniferous & permian are faulted tighter & see if I can make it out; and also I mean to get on the top of Kinder Scout to see the wonderful weathering of the grit.³

The country is disappointing as far as beauty goes, and though the effect of the wide bleak grass hills is fine it is much spoilt by numberless stone walls; the only really pretty part is the deep valley cut by the Wye in limestone which we shall see well in going down to Haddon.⁴ Miss Ashburner is set on castles so that we are to drive 12 miles to see Peveril’s Peak, tho’ I fancy it is not much of a ruin, her interest in Kenilworth was extreme, and we were so sorry that Sara was not equal to going; but it was wiser not after our tiring day at Stratford; which interested us all four very much.⁵ I feared we should be plagued with crowds of wretches being shown over the house at the same time, but we most luckily had it all to ourselves; we did not gush or get sentimental, but when on the spot one felt it all the more astonishing that Shakespeare could have written and read all that he appears to have done, and I made Miss A. most indignant by saying that probably after all you were right & that Bacon was the man.⁶

Sara has consulted a dried up little Scotchman a D^r Robertson,⁷ who seems not to have much in him, but he wisely orders no physick, and is very cautious in the amount of bathing ordered, which is only to be every other day, beginning at 6 minutes, & not getting beyond 10. It is too cold for sitting out unluckily, and there are hardly any pretty short walks except in the public gardens, but after Droitwich she will be equal to any dullness, and I think the keen air after Southampton mildness will be a wholesome change. I am sure it will brace me up well as I was getting rather flabby.

I went yesterday and called on Reginald D. & found him very friendly & pleasant and hearty, and I much enjoyed seeing all the D. pictures &c; he is evidently deeply interested in the pedigree and all information about the family.⁸

He seems to be particularly taken with George, and said on several occasions what a first rate fellow he was, he had been alarmed at a Wrangler, and expected a tall thin man in spectacles, and was delighted to find an ordinary mortal who could laugh.⁹ He has the signs of having been a sportsman & small squire all his life, and has been chairman of the bench here for 20 years or more, so that he is one of the big people here. He & M^rs. D.¹⁰ called he today, she is a pleasant old lady & tried to be very friendly, but as I had before explained that S. was not strong & we are a large party, I think they will probably not ask us to dinner.

I am glad to get to know my relations, and also to see the picture of Erasmus which he has which is the finest I have seen.¹¹

Goodbye my dear Father | My love to Mother, you must feel an oddly small party your affect son | WED

Reginald D. seemed really smitten with George

What is it about a bronze of your head¹²