Unruly Students

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO LAST NIGHT

Deb delivered, according to Scott, an 'elementary' geology lecture 'with a view to making his further lectures better understood.' Ohhhh, but that misses out the best bits, because according to Deb it went like this:

The subject was general Geology mostly to do with the classification of Rocks, a very dry subject. I kept going for the appointed hour and a few of the more zealous took notes but several others had hard work to keep themselves awake. Birdie, Atch and Soldier [Titus] made great sport before the lecture, sitting at the other side of the specimens. They clapped furiously at everything I pulled out and yelled 'encore,' 'lollies and chocolates,' etc. etc. and until the lecture I was hard at work chucking off the table various extra specimens laid out by them, such as pieces of soap, boots and sponges, but as I aimed at them I got my revenge. On turning up one of my rock diagrams I found Birdie had labelled them 'section of German sausage,' 'brawn' etc. Next time I shall prepare it more carefully and have more specimens to show.