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attend to at once. I purpose sending themoff as widely as I can, and, in the meantimeallow me to say that there are specimens tobe seen in the Geological Museum inJermyn-street, whither I sent them a weekago. Yours truly, W. STOWE Buckingham,Jan 8'.In a benevolent attempt to help Stowe aletter under the name Conchos then appearednoting that fossils were also appearing ingreat numbers in the new sewerage excavationsin London! (Times 10 January 1857, p.10co1.a):'Sir, - Perhaps the fossil collectors who haveoverwhelined your Buckingham correspondent. W.Stowe, whose letter appears in your columnsof to-day, may feel interested in the factthat, in excavating for the sewers on the newLondon road now forming to shorten thedistance from central Essex and theLea-bridge-road to the metropolis, theworkmen have within the last few days, at adepth of about 20 feet, dug into a bed ofseasand, containing numerous shells, bothnnivalves and bivalves of supposed extinctspecies, com~ningled with what appears to hedrift wood in large pieces, now quite black,thus evidencing that at some period of ourworld's history the seashore reached to UpperClapton. For those curious in the matter Imay add that the site of this discovery isnot far from where Clapton-gate formerlystood - for that barbarian harrier, with itsante-diluvian gatehouse, is, if notfossilized, at least .disintegrated, and now,like the inhabitants of the said uni and bivalves, among the "things that were, but arenot" - and on the new line of road thusthrown open opposite its site, proceedingwest and south-west towards London. Thedistance is about two and a-half or threemiles from the Royal Exchange. I am, Sir,your obedient servant, CONCHOSLondon, Jan. 9'.Fig.2. Specimens from Tingewick whichappeared in the Illustrated London News(24 January 1857, vo1.30, pp.67-68).opinion about the origin of these apparentlyconcretionary objects as 'marine vegetables,fungi, algae and fuci'. This was recorded bythe Oxford Journal, their report ending: 'weare authorised to say that Mr Stowe wouldsend specimens to any institution orindividual who takes an interest in suchmatters on their paying the zarriage byail. Unfortunately the Times newspaperpicked up and reprinted the notice (G January1857, p.12, col.1); the result was outlinedby Stowe himself two days later in a letterto the Times (9 January 1857, p.10, co1.f):Sir, - The transference of a paragraph aboutfossils from a local paper into yourwide-world publication has overwhelmed mewith applications for them, having had about70 in 24 hours, which it is impossible toCooper, when sending these letters to Jones,offered to obtain specimens of the Tingewickfossils from his fellow surgeon for Jones who'not wishing to trouble [Cooper], Ithankfully declined'. It would be ofinterest to know if readers can shed light onthe material generated at Tingewick and bythe Upper Clapton (North London) sewers. Theinterest in the Tingewick discovery was suchthat an article also appeared in theIllustrated London News (30, pp.67-G8 of 24January 18571, with illustrations of some ofthe specimens (reproduced here as Fig.2). Bythis date Stowe had been deluged with 170letters asking for specimens but he was'unable to go on satisfying the claimants asthe men have ceased to dig for clay for theseason'! The sheer volume of the responsegives a clear indication of the greatpopularity of fossil collecting 130 years ago.On 22 June 1860 Stowe died in Buckingham atthe age of G9 (Times 21 June 1860, p.1). Thefate of his personal, and perhapsconsiderable, fossil collection isunrecorded. When Owen (1842, p.101)described Cetiosaurus he noted that the fewlarge caudal vertebrae and other bones of C.