As soon as we returned to Chelsea, the "Connexion of the Physical Sciences" was published. It was dedicated to Queen Adelaide, who thanked me for it at a drawing-room. Some time after Somerville and I went to Scotland; we had travelled all night in the mail coach, and when it became light, a gentleman who was in the carriage said to Somerville, "Is not the lady opposite to me Mrs. Somerville, whose bust I saw at Chantrey's?" The gentleman was Mr. Sopwith, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, a civil and mining engineer. He was distinguished for scientific knowledge, and had been in London to give information to a parliamentary committee. He travelled faster than we did, and when we arrived at Newcastle he was waiting to take us to his house, where we were hospitably received by Mrs. Sopwith. His conversation was highly interesting, and to him I was indebted for much information on mining generally, and on the mineral wealth of Great Britain, while writing on Physical Geography. Many years after he and Mrs. Sopwith came and saw me at Naples, which gave me much pleasure. He was unlike any other traveller I ever met with, so profound and original were his observations on all he saw. * * * * * On coming home I found that I had made an error in the first edition of the "Physical Sciences," in giving 365 days 6 hours as the length of the civil year of the ancient Egyptians. My friend Mr. Hallam, the historian, wrote to me, proving from history and epochs of the chronology of the ancient Egyptians, that their civil year was only 365 days. I was grateful to that great and amiable man for copies of all his works while he was alive, and I am obliged to his daughter for an excellent likeness of him, now that he is no more. FROM HENRY HALLAM, ESQ., TO MRS. SOMERVILLE. WIMPOLE STREET, _March 12th, 1835_. MY DEAR MADAM, As you will probably soon be called upon for another edition of your excellent work on the "Connexion of the Physical Sciences," I think you will excuse the liberty I take in mentioning to you one passage which seems to have escaped your attention in so arduous a labour. It is in page 104, where you have this sentence:-- "The Egyptians estimated the year at 365 d. 6 h., by which they lost one year in every 14,601, their Sothiac period. They determined the length of their year by the heliacal rising of Sirius, 2782 years before the Christian era, which is the earliest epoch of Egyptian chronology."