The West of Scotland Regional Dredging Committee of the BAAS: Firth of Clyde dredging activities and participants’ circumstances impinging thereon (1834–1856)

Abstract

Insights gained into the activities of the West of Scotland Regional Dredging Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS): a committee comprising the Reverend Dr Charles Popham Miles (Chairman), Dr Robert Kaye Greville, Professor John Hutton Balfour and Thomas Campbell Eyton, are presented. Based particularly on previously unreported correspondence between Miles and Balfour, and between Greville and Balfour that is housed in the archives of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the backgrounds of these persons (like their shared religious leanings) are illuminated and their practical experiences of dredging in the Firth of Clyde, notably in Lamlash Bay (Isle of Arran), brought into focus. Economic aspects relating to the costs of dredging, the finances of participants and the adequacy of the initial BAAS grant are highlighted and other social aspects commented upon. There is no known surviving contemporary account of the interactions between this network of BAAS dredging committee members, so this correspondence seemingly remains, to date, the only information that is available as primary sources.