Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
in the helium method'. But it was too late for Holmes' book,
which was already in print. Wise, many years after the event, he
wrote:
'We have all been hopelessly wrong at one time or
another, and it would ill behove us to hold the great pioneers
in any less esteem because we have the advantage of tech-
niques undreamt of by them.'
Was he perhaps, including
himself amongst the 'great pioneers'?
Sitting opposite one another across the huge desk, surrounded
by piles of topics, Doris and Arthur were blissfully happy in each
others company, but others were not so pleased with the new
arrangement. Doris had taken over Holmes' teaching of the first
year geology class which, with thirteen men and nine women,
was the biggest Durham had ever seen. But although she was a
very capable and sometimes even entertaining lecturer, she
did not have the same ability to spellbind in the way that
Holmes did. In addition, his research students complained that
they could never see Holmes without Doris being present and
having a say in the matter whether it involved her or not, so the
close relationship they had built with him became diluted.
Furthermore, tied to the cathedral as the University was, for both
its financial and spiritual well-being, any improper behaviour
was unlikely to be tolerated by the authorities. Whatever he
might have wished, Holmes was still a married man with a
young son, and he was treading on very dangerous ground. But
he was in love and apparently oblivious to criticism.
Doris rented a house on her own, just across the university
campus from the Holmes' residence, so she and Arthur would
often be seen standing together at the bus stop outside the
Science Laboratories talking geology. Arthur would see her
home and then walk across the park to his house, sometimes
quite late at night. Undoubtedly his long hours and frequent
absences from home, even before he met Doris, contributed to
