"The salutations were barely over, when I said--
"'It is now six o'clock; I must reach Wellington tonight, and as it is said to be fully eight miles off, and I am utterly unacquainted with the road, and with the town when I reach it, I cannot remain with you one minute after eight o'clock.'
"'Oh, very well,' said D----, 'then we must improve the shining hour. Jane, my dear, be so good as to order tea.'
"Having said this he left the room. In a few minutes he returned with a book under his arm and his hands filled with writing materials, which he placed on the table. Opening the book, he said--
"'This is Hind's _Trigonometry_, and here's a lot of examples for practice. Let us see which can do the greatest number of them by eight o'clock. I did most of them many years ago, but I have not looked at them since. Suppose we begin at this one'--which he pointed out--'and take them as they come. We can drink our tea as we work, so as to lose no time.'
"'All right,' said I; though it was certainly not the object for which I had come out of my road.
"Accordingly we set to work. No words passed between us; the servant brought in the tray, Mrs. D---- handed us our tea, which we drank now and then, and the time flew on rapidly. At length, finding it to be a quarter to eight--
"'We must stop,' said I, 'for in a quarter of an hour I must be on my road.'
"'Very well. Let us see how our answers agree with those of the author.'
"It proved that he had correctly solved one more than I had. This point settled, I said 'Good-bye.'
"'Good-bye. Do come again as soon as you can. The farmers know nothing whatever about Trigonometry.'
"We parted at the rectory door, and have never met since; nor shall we ever do so more, as his decease occurred several years ago. During my long walk to Wellington my mind was chiefly occupied with the mental isolation of a rural clergyman."
In 1851 he lost his wife, and some years after both his children by her.
In 1853 he married a Lydia Spriggs, a Quakeress.
William Pengelly's scientific explorations may be divided under three heads. The first was his minute and accurate examination of the deposits that form Bovey Heathfield, where there are layers of clay, sand, and lignite. He was able to extract numerous fossil plants, and thereby to determine the approximate age of the beds.