had seen
before, but there were slitting mills, machines for rolling the
puddled blooms instead of hammering them, &c., and we had the
satisfaction of handling the puddling irons ourselves. Then we went to
another work of the Fosters not far from Dudley, where part of the
work of the Tube Bridge for the Menai is going on. The Fosters are, I
believe, the largest iron masters in the country, and the two
principal partners, the elder Mr Foster and his Nephew, accompanied us
in all our inspections and steppings from one set of works to another.
The length of Tube Bridge which they have in hand here is only 120
feet, about 1/4 of the whole length: and at present they are only busy
on the bottom part of it: but it is a prodigious thing. I shall be
anxious about it. Then we went to other works of the Fosters' at
King's Wynford, where they have blast furnaces: and here after seeing
all other usual things we saw the furnaces tapped. In this district
the Fosters work the 10-yard coal in a way different from any body
else: they work out the upper half of its thickness and then leave the
ground to fall in: after a year or two this ground becomes so hard as
to make a good safe roof, and then they work away the other half: thus
they avoid much of the danger and difficulty of working the thick bed
all at once. The ventilation of these mines scarcely ever requires
fires, and then only what they call "lamps," those little fire-places
which are used for giving light at night. (In the Northumberland and
Durham pits, they constantly have immense roaring fires to make a
draught.) Then we came home through Dudley.

* * * * *

During his stay in Russia, there was a great desire manifested by the
astronomers and scientific men of Russia that he should be presented
to the Emperor. This would no doubt have taken place had not the
movements of the Court and his own want of time prevented it. The
following letter to the British Ambassador, Lord Bloomfield, relates
to this matter:

PULKOWA,
_1847, August 25th_.
_Wednesday evening_.

MY LORD,

I had the honour yesterday to receive your Lordship's note of Sunday
last, which by some irregularity in the communications with this place
reached me, I believe, later than it ought. From this circumstance,
and also