--With great respect and esteem, and sincerest wishes for your health and happiness, I am, my dear Sir, yours most faithfully.

"GIDEON MANTELL."

"Should Mr Lyell be still in your neighbourhood, pray do me the favour to present my and Mrs M.'s best regards to him. He is no little favourite at Castle Place, I assure you."

Dr Fleming had forwarded to his friend nearly ninety specimens of rocks, and received the following acknowledgments :"Castle Place, Lewes, March 16. 1830.

My Dear Sir,-I have deferred writing till now, that at the same time that I returned you my most grateful acknowledgments for your kind favour of the 18th January, and the interesting suite of specimens which shortly after reached me, I might announce the departure of a box of fossils for you; the latter was sent by waggon yesterday to our excellent friend Mr Lyell, who will duly forward it to you. And now, my dear sir, let me once for all assure you, that I feel most deeply indebted for your kind attention and most interesting present; you have given me the materials for a month's study when the spring comes in, and I unfeignedly declare that I value them even beyond their scientific value on the account of the donor Your Philosophy of Zoology, which I read eight years ago, made me most anxious to become known to its author; and as there is no one whom I so much regard and esteem as Mr Lyell, the pleasure was the greater, that my wishes were realised through his kindness. You, my dear sir, will find, I fear, that you have encumbered yourself with a troublesome and useless correspondent. My object in the collection I have now sent you, was to give you a general idea of the contents of our chalk, principally the Craie blanche. Like yours my stock of duplicates is low, and I could not send so good a series as I wished; the greater part are uncleared, and require the chalk to be removed wholly or in part with a sharp knife or chisel (first dipping the specimen in water), and then washing them in water with a sponge or brush; the fishes and crustacea will not of course bear ablution. I sent the fossils in this state because they would be less likely to be injured in carriage. The polished specimens of aluminite (from the plastic clay near Newhaven) are very rare,—in other words, it is seldom the mineral is sufficiently compact to bear a polish. The firestone (Craie chloritic) is described at length in my 2d vol.; it is from Southbourn. The Sussex marble (containing cypris paludinæ, &c.) is, as you know, the uppermost beds of the Hastings formation; you have specimens polishedsome with the parts of the shells in relief, and some of the shells broken out of the softer kinds of limestone. Again, à la Abernethy, I must refer you to my book. Unfortunately all our best fossils are large, very large. Our fish, Ammonites, Nautili, &c. are very heavy, and would not be worthy of carriage to Fifeshire. I have put in scarcely any specimen from the

Tilgate beds, reserving the productions of that formation for my next. The skull of Ursus arrived quite safe, and is quite a treasure. Your reply is very excellent; and I assure you the blows told well; you are a regular floorer; I will not put on the gloves with you; the idola specus was admirable! I perfectly agree with you that, "the effects of causes no longer in action' is absurd, except as applied to a particular district.' In that sense only do I wish the definition to be understood. I assure you I fully agree with Mr Lyell in the opinion, that the causes now in action are sufficient to produce (and have produced) all the phenomena of geology. The Plesiosaurus is recovered from his accident, you will have it in the next No. of Jameson; but really it is a pity your time and talents should be frittered away in controversy: truth will prevail. Lyell's new work (which is printed as far as p. 144) will do wonders; but the author will have a hornet's nest about his ears. He is a noble fellow, and will not mind it. Mr L. spent three days with me in the winter, and I was with him at the anniversary, 19th Feb. I wish I had taken a larger sheet of paper, I have so much to mention. I can now only repeat the assurance of my gratitude and respect and esteem. Yours, my dear Sir, most faithfully,

"G. MANTELL."

"If you want any information respecting any of the specimens, please to ask while I remember them. A small paper on the Fossils of Sussex is at the bottom of the box."

His correspondent of 1807, Sir John Sinclair, was still labouring for his country's good, and had not forgotten him.

"I understand," wrote Sir John in September 1829, "that you have written a paper on 'The Wheat Fly,' but I have not been able to procure a copy of it. As I am now engaged, however, in the same inquiry, I should be glad to see your thoughts upon it. In the interim, I have the pleasure of sending you the sketch of a paper which I have written upon that subject, on which I should be glad to be favoured with your remarks. It is a matter of such immense consequence to the general interest of the country to prevent the depredations of such destructive vermin, that we must combine to probe the subject to the bottom."

LXI

CHAPTER IV. 1829 to 1834.

Dr Harlan of Philadelphia-Entomology-Rev. F. W. Hope-Chair of Agriculture-Household Afflictions-Friendships-Buckland-Lyell-Mantell -Presentation to Clackmannan-Lord Dundas-Letters to Neill-Retrospect-Professorship of Nat. Phil. King's College, Aberdeen-Memorial of his Parishioners-Testimonies to Ministerial Fidelity.

Dr Fleming's name was now well known, not only in Britain and on the Continent, but in America likewise. Dr Harlan, a distinguished physician and zoologist of Philadelphia, kept him acquainted with the progress of his favourite pursuits in the United States.

"I acknowledge," he says, "with pleasure the receipt of your Fauna Britannica, precisely such a work as was needed in British Zoology. As far as I have read in it the last two days, it answers my highest expectations. In the Jour. of the Acad. Nat. Sc. of Philad., Mr Say has adopted your classification of the tortoises, forgetting to mention your name. The Bulletin des Sc. Nat. of Ferrusac, as well as Bell, a writer in the Zoolog. Jour. of London, have adopted the genus Cistuda, and refer the name to Mr Say-though his paper occurred two years after your Phil. of Zool.—a work which I lent him for perusal, and he expressed himself highly pleased, both with the style and matter. Some of the London Zoologists appear to me very superficially read in their own department, and in your case, have shewn themselves ignorant of the author's works, whose improvements they have unknowingly adopted." "I wish to send you a copy of my Fauna Americana,* and some other lighter publications of my own, extracted from various journals. I correspond in Paris with Baron Cuvier and Desmarest, and am personally acquainted with the American Minister, Mr Brown; in England, with M. Lawrance, Surgeon, Dr Horsefield, of Java renown, and Mr Griffith, one of the authors of 'The Animal Kingdom.' Any of these gentlemen would forward a packet to me, should you have occasion."

The correspondence with Kirby referred to above, shews that Dr Fleming had early given some attention to Entomology,

*Limited to the Mammiferous Animals of N. America.

a branch of natural science in which, notwithstanding the low estimate he had of his own attainments, he had made much progress. During the last thirty years great advancement has been made in this delightful field of observation. This could not fail to be the case when the energies of such men as Kirby, Spence, F. W. Hope, J. O. Westwood, S. Stevens, &c. were enthusiastically devoted to it. Dr Fleming was elected a member of the Entomological Society of London. Few of his correspondents enjoyed so much of his esteem and love as Rev. F. W. Hope, whose letters to him must often have cheered him at times when his mind turned to the tardy recognition of his pre-eminent abilities as a naturalist, by those who could have easily done him substantial good. A most successful field entomologist, Mr Hope seemed to return from his rambles, in the neighbourhood of Netley or in the New Forest, not only laden with lots of rarities, but with the sunshine of his out-door studies around him, to report progress to his friend in Scotland :

"Dear Fleming, I have just returned from a marine or coast entomological trip, which a too close application made absolutely necessary. My success far exceeded my expectation. . . . . . I shall, of course, reserve species for your collection. At Sheppey, Crustaceous fossils attracted my attention, and among them, Desmerest's species, viz., Xantho Leachii and Inachus Lamarkii in abundance. It was my intention to have shipped them all off to Cupar along with the fossils, but Sowerby has disappointed Of course, you are busy collecting. Mind I expect numbers of fine things, and among them Elator riparius."

me.

In another letter-"Your letter pleased me greatly, as you give a good account of yourself, which is better than all the collections of Scarabæi, &c. You are now public property, and must, therefore, take care of yourself. I agree with you, is a bad year for Lepidoptera. I have never captured so few-really the flowers have not had their usual sweetness. Sowerby promises to have all the fossils ready by my return to town, when I shall send you and Wilson a pretty considerable parcel. You shall have the whole of the Crusta-ceans to examine. Presume not too much on your health, i.e., be not always in doors." Again-"Would no inducement lead you to the focus of Science? I may be selfish in desiring a more intimate connection with you, but not entirely so, as I am thoroughly convinced, there are many choice spirits, who would hail your arrival amongst us." "I always look forward with pleasure to the arrival of a Fife letter,

"This year

although a tinge of melancholy sometimes pervades them." (1831) I have visited the New Forest twice, and have captured more novelties and varieties than ever. Pray send me a list of your named species. I have now many hundred duplicates, and it will be your own fault if you do not take advantage of them. You will be glad to hear I have purchased all the Crustacea of Sowerby's collection, and there are none of them which may not be unacceptable to you."

The "tinge of melancholy" which Mr Hope had observed in some of his friend Fleming's letters, like a shadow thrown into the midst of sunshine, was the result of a feeling which was year by year growing more intense, even that the position. he occupied was not one in which he could ever find scope for his talents, while translation to a suitable one seemed to imply an attitude to patrons or to political parties, to which he was little willing to stoop. Neill knew all his private thoughts on these things; but, in order to help him, his zeal sometimes outran his discretion. In 1831 a professor was required for the Agricultural Chair in the Edinburgh University, and remembering the insight which Fleming had enjoyed into practical agriculture on the farms of his father and brother,-remembering, too, the relationship into which he had been brought to the Board of Agriculture by Sir John Sinclair, and having high views of the great benefit which would be conferred on his native country, if one should be elected to the chair who would link up lectures on the Theory of Agriculture with Geology and Chemistry,-Neill wished him to become a candidate. But Fleming refused, and in turn suggested the chair to Neill himself.

"I wish the University may get a professor capable of teaching agriculture as a science, and not as a trade, and if I might give a hint on the subject, I would wish to see the chair filled by one who has studied the sister science of Horticulture in an intellectual manner, and who might turn the Experimental Garden to good account as a useful establishment. I would even urge you on this subject to make an effort. You would require no certificates, but if you did, it would amuse and delight me to write one.

"I regret to observe that you have acted, subsequently, in a way, really I must out with it, not like yourself. Has Dr Macknight talked to Dr Gardiner? Mr Blackwood, Convener Chambers, Convener Marshall, &c., are sounded, so that by this time it is pretty generally understood that I am, or wish to be, a candidate. Now this is not as it ought to have been, be