FRANCIS TREVELYAN BUCKLAND. 



MOST of those whose lives are sketched in 

 this volume lived to be old men ; but Frank 

 Buckland, the pet and pride of thousands in Eng- 

 land, died in his prime, almost at the beginning of 

 his fame ; a man of whose life our " Popular Science 

 Monthly " says, " None more active, varied, and use- 

 ful is recorded in scientific biography." 



He was the oldest son of the Dean of Westmin- 

 ster, Dr. William Buckland, and was born Decem- 

 ber 17, 1826, at Christ Church, Oxford, of which 

 cathedral his father was canon at that time. 



" I was told," says Frank, in later years, " that, 

 soon after my birth, my father and my godfather, 

 the late Sir Francis Chantry, weighed me in the 

 kitchen scales against a leg of mutton, and that I 

 was heavier than the joint provided for the family 

 dinner that day. In honor of my arrival, my father 

 and Sir Francis went into the garden and planted 

 a birch tree. I know the taste of the twigs of that 

 birch tree well. Sir Francis Chantry offered to 

 give me a library. ' What is the use of a library 

 to a child an hour old ? ' said my father. ' He will 

 live to be sorry for that answer,' said Sir Francis. 

 I never got the library. 



