A geological tour of Scotland in 1816 – Historic Art and Geology

On 3 April 1816, twenty-year old Henry De la Beche and two companions set off from Lyme Regis in Dorset on a tour of Scotland. They spent about five weeks in Scotland, including ten days in the northeast. Their interests were mainly geological; all three were fossil collectors and friends of a family of local commercial fossil dealers, the Annings. De la Beche was also a very competent artist and draughtsman, mainly self-taught but with some tuition during a short period at military college. His journal of their tour, which survives in the archives of the British Geological Survey, is well-illustrated with pencil sketches and watercolours of landscape views, geological features, and some scenes of local life. De la Beche went on to become a major figure in early nineteenth century geology as the founding director of the Geological Survey.

Tom Sharpe was Curator of Palaeontology and Archives at the National Museum of Wales and has long had an interest in the history of geology. He has published on the work of De la Beche and geological surveyor William Smith, and is the author of The Fossil Woman A Life of Mary Anning, a biography of the Lyme Regis fossilist.