212 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



were annually appointed by the Society. The medal 

 in the first year was won by the present Provost of 

 Glasgow University, Dr. Donald Macalister ; that in 

 the second by George Grey Butler, son of my 

 brother-in-law, and for many years Chief Examiner of 

 the Education Office. The medals were continued 

 for some years, but they were said to do incidental 

 harm by tempting the masters of schools of the 

 second rank to divert their best scholars to geography 

 in order to gain dclat for the school, thereby inter- 

 fering with their career in the more generally re- 

 cognised and bread-winning studies of ordinary 

 education. 



The medals were therefore discontinued, and the 

 efforts of the Society were directed to the Universities. 

 I helped in this at first, but Mr. Brodrick and Mr. 

 Douglas Freshfield and others took the matter more 



o 



thoroughly in hand. After a little while, Mr. Mac- 

 Kinder, now Head of the Department of Economics 

 of the University of London, applied for and gained 

 the post of " Reader" in Geography in the University 

 of Oxford, and he rapidly improved the quality of 

 geographical teaching. General, afterwards Sir 

 Richard Strachey, then President of the Royal 

 Geographical Society, inaugurated the introduction of 

 geography into the University of Cambridge by four 

 lectures. I believe the subject has now gained a 

 firm footing in both Universities. To say the least 

 of it, a thorough knowledge of classical lands, such as 

 can be conveyed by first-rate maps, models, and 

 diagrams, must be helpful to classical students. 



