Naturalists and Visitors - Gower - page 17

Dillwyn was a close friend of scientists such as Michael Faraday and Humphry Davy and introduced
Joseph Banks and other eminent naturalists to the attractions of Gower and the Swansea area. Banks was
the British explorer and naturalist who, as long-time President of the Royal Society, London, became
known for his promotion of science. In particular Dillwyn had a special interest in geology and went on
geological expeditions whenever possible, often stopping in Oxford with his very good friend William
Buckland. Buckland was also a frequent visitor to Swansea, staying with Dillwyn, and with other col-
leagues heexcavated anumberofGowercaves, including mostfamously therichdeposits inGoat'sHole
(Paviland Cave). There is no doubt that Dillwyn took part in these excavations.
He also seems to have inspired other local landowners in various ways, as this note on the nightingale
Luscinia megarhynchos indicates:
My late friend, Thomas Penrice, Esq., completely failed in an attempt to introduce this lovely
songster, by bringing several cages of them from Norfolk, and turning them out in his woods
at Kilvrough, which are warmly situated by the sea-side, about eight miles to the westward of
Swansea.
Apairdid,however,eventually breedatHillendin1944,butwhilenightingales wereannualsummervis-
itorstotheValeofGlamorganduringthenineteenthcentury,Gowerwasclosetothenorthernandwestern
limits of its distribution in Britain. The species is now confined mostly to southeast England and there
have been no further records for the peninsula.
Dillwyncommunicatedhisenthusiasmfornaturalhistorytohissons,notablyJohnDillwyn-Llewelyn
(Fig. 9), who inherited an interest in botany and became a pioneer of the new photographic techniques,
taking many photographs of Gower, especially the coast. He was a relative by marriage of the pioneer
photographer Henry Fox Talbot. Dillwyn's other son, Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, a 'competent geologist',
married a daughter of the noted geologist Sir Henry Thomas de la Beche, founder of the Geological Sur-
vey of Great Britain. De la Beche's explorations in Gower resulted in some of the earliest geological sur-
veys.
Seemingly not content with all this activity, Dillwyn was also President of the Royal Institution of
South Wales from its foundation in 1835 until he died in 1855 and acted as mentor for an ever-widening
circle of naturalists who explored Gower and the Swansea area in some detail. In particular, Dillwyn en-
couragedJohnGwynJeffreystocollectshellsalongtheGowercoastline.Jeffreyslaterbecameextremely
well known with the publication between 1862 and 1869 of the five volumes of British Conchology , a
landmarkpublicationthatisstillconsultedtodayforitsprecisedescriptionsofshells.Jeffreyswasbornin
Swansea where he followed the family tradition and worked as a solicitor until 1856 when he was called
to the bar, after which he lived in London for the rest of his life. He was introduced to natural history at
Swansea Grammar School through a Naturalists' Society organised by Llewellyn John, a noted field nat-
uralist.
During the nineteenth century the number of naturalists who lived in the Swansea area, or visited
Gower and recorded their finds, increased substantially. It is not possible to list them all here; indeed
their exploits and finds would form a topic in themselves. The more notable personalities include Charles
Babington, Professor of Botany at Cambridge, who arrived at Mumbles in August 1839 having crossed
from Devon 'by the mail steamer at 5pm arriving at the Mumbles Lighthouse at about 9pm. As the tide
was low we had to land at the Mumbles and walk to Swansea a distance of five miles'. On 6 August he
wrote in his diary, 'Called on Mr Flower, who was in lodgings, and he went with me to Pennard Castle
wherewesawplentyofthe Draba aizoides onthewallsandrocksnearthecastleand Sinapis cheiranthus
[wallflower cabbage Coincya monensis ssp. recurvata ] on the steep side of the sandhills.'