This notebook, the first of 1828, shows Lyell’s continued interest in the Auvergne region of France, and comes at a time when he begins to plan for a grand trip. In May 1828, Lyell joined Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871) and his wife Charlotte Hugonin (1788-1869) for a fieldwork tour of France and Italy. The journey was planned expressly for geological fieldwork, the purpose of which was to educatethe travellers themselves, thus being closely related to what today would be called a field trip rather than field research. There were both educational and recreational aspects to the journey; Roderick Murchison referred to this journey as their (geological) Grand Tour.

Through travels Lyell’s theories evolved. His studies of the Roman Macellum or ‘Temple of Serapis’ in Pozzuoli, near Naples, in 1828 provide a perfect illustration of his understanding of the impact and significance of modern marine and geological processes.

A subject of concern for Lyell was the power and exclusivity of British Universities; 9 May 1828, parliament repealed the Test and Corporation Acts which had banned Catholics from holding government and public offices or from attending universities. The notebook contains: p.1: Chalk flint, ammonite in
p.1: Alligators in Mississippi
p.2: Chalk, fissures in
p.2: Echini in Chalk
p.2: Sheppey fossils
p.3, 13: Lewes levels
p.3: Mediterr[anean]
p.3: Rapidity of format[ion]
p.4: Murex on Ammonite
p.4: Quartzose sandst[one]
p.4: Wind
p.5: Earthq[uake]
p.6: Pentacrinus Europous
p.7: Rules, mammalia, birds, […]
p.7: Freshw[ater] form[ation]
p.8: Final […]
p.8: Change of vegetables
p.8: Dicotyl[…] wood in Green s[and]
p.10: Queries
p.11: Tilgate, monocotyl[…] wood
p.11: Storm of Nov[ember] 1824
p.12: Castle, circle half destroyed
p.13: Sharks teeth, Tilgate etc.
p.13: Turbo littoreus of Weald […]
p.13: Diluvium
p.13: Chalk, slate in
p.14: Beattie on Earthq[uake]
p.14: Wood in chalk
p.14: Silicif[ied] wood
p.15: Chalk, org[anic] re[mains]
p.15: Dredging the English channel
p.15: Wisdom of Solomon
p.15: Byron on the ocean
p.16: Extracts from Don Juan
p.16: Island of Antlantis (poem)
p.17: Wood coal
p.17: Mammalia
p.18: Rarity of fossils
p.18: Inclination, Jamieson
p.18: Fissures
p.19: Chalk fossils, lists of
p.20: Gault, D[itt]o, D[itt]o
p.20: Green sand D[itt]o, D[itt]o
p.21: Sharks very universal
p.22: Weald clay fossils
p.22: Tilgate beds, d[itt]o
p.23: Waders in d[itt]o
p.23: Mantell on destr[uction] of Brighton coast
p.23: D[itt]o on submarine forest
p.24: No foss. Quad. of height of Cameleopard [sic]
p.25: Climate
p.26: Tides highest on French side of British Chan[nel]
p.26: Bo[?]e in rivers
p.27: Baltic
p.27: Rivers colder than seas
p.28: Height of Tides
p.28: Freshwater lakes
p.28: Inland seas
p.28: Wood […] at Christch[urch] Head
p.29: Primitive rocks
p.29: Bonnard, M on primitive rocks of Burgundy
p.32: Brongniart, M on des gres d’ Hor
p.34: Desnoyer de la form[ation] Ool [?] de la France
p.35: Unknown causes
p.36: Elev[ation] of Mount[ains]
p.36: Toleration of spin[…]
p.37: Jamieson on sands of Egypt
p.38: Flinders s[an]d pumice formed cement to some coral isles
p.38: Chateauvieux on the Maremmes of Tuscany
p.43: Guanas of N.S. Walls
p.45: Valleys in mountain chains how caused
p.48: Voltaire, extracts from
p.50: Elevation
p.50: Smyths Sicily, extracts
p.57: Insects in marl
p.58: Free fern, silicif[ied] in Saxony
p.58: Mastodous
p.59: Prevost on Chalk of Paris
p.60: Refrig’n of globe in 2000 years
p.60: Subapennines
p.61: Ava bones
p.61: Sea, greatest depth
p.61: Deluge
p.61: Cuvier revol’s
p.62: Chateauvieux’s Letters extracts from
p.66: Hordwell Cliff, […]
p.66: Plastic clay
p.68: Mont Dor silex
p.68: Amygdaloid
p.69: Opalized wood
p.69: Eifel wood in traps
p.69: Brown coal form[ation]
p.69: M[on]t Bolea fish
p.70: Diluvium, flint gravel
p.70: Limena of N[orth] Holland
p.71: Burmese fossil shells
p.73: Lias, Syenite, of Sky
p.73: Water spout n[ea]r Croydon
p.74: Legendum
p.75: Central Heat
p.76: Skeleton of Rhinoceros with marine shells adhearing to it. Piacenza.
p.76: Skeletons of Elephants [et cetera] with d[itt]o
p.78: Turtles in Bay of Bincay
p.78: Crocodile in Paris gyps[um]
p.78: Coal in the Andes
p.78: Ronca, marine + volcanic form[ation] alternating
p.79: Sulp[hur] of Barytes, Auvergne
p.79: Gergovia, trap versus
p.80: Mezen, Trachyte above basalt
p.80: Cantal, Subap[…] beds contin[ued] to within 30 miles of
p.80: Potoie, hot spring
p.81: Isthmus of Suez
p.81: M. testaceo, Roman jars
p.82: M. Mario, bones of Eleph[ants]
p.82: Lake Titicaca, 7000 sq. miles height of 12,900 ft
p.83: Volc[ani]c from lat. 16 to Cape Horn
p.84: Auvergne mem[oranda]
p.90: Tree ferns in Upper Peru at height of 6500 ft.
p.90: Legendum
p.90: Voluta, remarks on
p.91: Trachyte, modern
p.91: Gold + Silver, mines of
p.91: Peru, their age
p.92: Glaris slate – fish?
p.92: Tilgate beds
p.92: Pappenheim, oolite
p.93: Caithness Fish
p.93: Oolite coal, Yorksh[ire]
p.93: Errors in Fleming
p.101: Forfarsh[ire] Lead
p.102: Salt from […]
p.102: Verona, deposit of crabs
p.102: Peru, Silver mines in Mag[nesian] limest[one]
p.103: Peru section of d[itt]o
p.105: Encrinites + Producto at elev[ation] of 15,000 ft
p.105: Boulade Bones
p.105: Isocardium Cor
p.105: Soldier Crab in Subap[…]
p.106: Subap[…] format[ions] + shells
p.108: Bordeaux shells
p.108: Cerith[…] + Potamides, diff[erence]
p.109: Lepidoptera
p.111,112,119: Dante […]
p.111: Merricks Cardigan
p.115: Elev[ation] of limest[one] Andes
p.115: Elev[ation] of coal Andes
p.115: Tripli rock, red marl
p.116: Marine shells in ravines n[ea]r Lima [et cetera]
p.117: Ammonites f[oun]d in Indea believed to cont[inue] Violana
p.120: Benddant found recent shells under Coiron basalt
p.122: Pentland on foss[il] fish
p.169: Supap[…] queries
p.170: Geolog[y] queries