ave a lecture in Prof. Forbes's room. I received the Honorary
Degree of LL.D., and made a statement on the Telescopes of Lord Rosse
and Mr Lassell to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Returned to
Greenwich by Brampton."

* * * * *

Here is a reminiscence of the "Ipswich Lectures," in a letter to his
wife, dated Playford, 1848 Mar. 14, "At the proper time I went to the
hall: found a chairman installed (Mr Western): was presented to him,
and by him presented to the audience: made my bow and commenced. The
room was quite full: I have rarely seen such a sea of faces; about 700
I believe. Everything went off extremely well, except that the rollers
of the moving piece of sky would squeak: but people did not mind it:
and when first a star passed the meridian, then Jupiter, then some
stars, and then Saturn, he was much applauded. Before beginning I gave
notice that I should wait to answer questions: and as soon as the
lecture was finished the Chairman repeated this and begged people to
ask. So several people did ask very pertinent questions (from the
benches) shewing that they had attended well. Others came up and
asked questions."

* * * * *

The following extracts are from letters written to his wife while on
his visit to Lord Rosse at Parsonstown in Ireland. On the way he
stopped at Bangor and looked at the Tubular Bridge Works, which are
thus referred to: "Stopped at Bangor, settled _pro tem_. at the
Castle, and then walked past the Suspension Bridge towards the Tube
Works, which are about 1-1/2 mile south-west of the Suspension Bridge.
The way was by a path through fields near the water side: and from one
or two points in this, the appearance of the Suspension Bridge was
most majestic. The Tube Bridge consists of four spans, two over water
and two over sloping land. The parts for the double tube over the
water spans (four lengths of tube) are building on a platform as at
Conway, to be floated by barges as there: the parts over the sloping
banks are to be built in their place, on an immense scaffolding. I
suspect that, in regard to these parts, Stephenson is sacrificing a
great deal of money to uniformity of plan: and that it would have been
much cheaper to build out stone arches to the piers touching the
water.... The Tube Works are evidently the grand promenade of the
idlers about Bangor: I saw many scores of ladies and gentlemen walking
that way with their