34 THE COMING [CH. 



There was a singular parallel between the early 

 careers of these two men. Both were the sons of 

 parents of ample means, and were thus freed from 

 the distractions of a business or profession, while 

 throughout life they alike remained exempt from 

 family cares. Each of them received the ordinary 

 education of the English upper classes Scrope at 

 Harrow, and Lyell at Salisbury, in a school conducted 

 by a Winchester master on public-school lines. In 

 due course, the two young men proceeded to the 

 University Scrope to Cambridge, to come under the 

 influence of the sagacious and eloquent Sedgwick, 

 and Lyell to Oxford, to catch inspiration from the 

 enthusiastic but eccentric Buckland On the opening 

 up of the continent, by the termination of the French 

 wars, each of the young men accompanied his family 

 in a carriage-tour (as was the fashion of the time) 

 through France, Switzerland and Italy ; and both 

 utilised the opportunities thus afforded them, to 

 make long walking excursions for geological study. 

 They both returned again and again to the continent 

 for the purpose of geological research, and in the year 

 1825, at the age of 28, found themselves associated 

 as joint-secretaries of the Geological Society. By 

 this time they had arrived at similar convictions 

 concerning the causes of geological phenomena 

 convictions which were in direct opposition to the 

 views of their early teachers, and equally obnoxious 



