424 Reviews — Clark's Life of Sedgwick. 



Now came the crisis of his life. Sedgwick was thirty-three years 

 of age, when it was announced that the Eev. John Hailstone, who 

 had been Woodwardian Professor of Geology since 1788, was pro- 

 posing to vacate the office. Sedgwick had no special claims to 

 justify him in becoming a candidate ; he desired a motive for active 

 exertion in a way that would promote his intellectual improvement. 

 He was opposed by Gorham (subsequently of controversial fame), 

 but Sedgwick, who was supported, as a man of talent, by his College, 

 polled 186 votes against 59 of his rival. Sedgwick remarked, 

 " Hitherto I have never turned a stone ; henceforth I will leave no 

 stone unturned," and the energy and enthusiasm with which he set 

 to work is well told in these pages. His earliest lessons were taken 

 alone in the field, with the maps of William Smith in his hand, 

 when he traversed on foot the Cretaceous and Oolitic rocks of 

 Wiltshire and Somersetshire. To quote from the volume before us, 

 " He always contrived to combine a large amount of amusement 

 with business. ' That lively gentleman Mr. Sedgwick,' as he was 

 called by a stranger who met him in a stage-coach, had a happy 

 knack of making himself agreeable to everybody with whom he 

 happened to be brought into contact, and his geological tours gave 

 him a wide and varied experience of mankind. With all sorts and 

 conditions of men, quarrymen, miners, fishermen, smugglers, shep- 

 hei - ds, artisans, grooms, inn-keepers, clergy of all denominations, 

 squires, noblemen — he was equally communicative, and soon became 

 equally popular. He could make the most silent talk, and could 

 extract information and amusement out of materials that seemed at 

 first sight destitute of either quality." 



We are told how he made acquaintance with J. J. Conybeare, and 

 afterwards with his more distinguishished brother W. D. Conybeare, 

 whom Sedgwick came to regard as his Master in Geology. As early 

 as 1819 he began to make original observations, and between that 

 date and 1827 he explored much of the West of England, Yorkshire, 

 Durham, and the Lake District. Accounts of his journeys are 

 communicated in letters ; and indeed throughout his life, Sedgwick 

 was a capital letter- writer. The records of these early investigations 

 are especially interesting, for Sedgwick explored the districts for 

 the most part on foot, carrying heavy burdens of rocks and fossils, 

 and finding shelter after the labours of the day at one of the country 

 inns. Occasionally we find him accompanied by Henslow or 

 Whewell ; but his chief work in early years was done alone. 

 When at Cambridge, " He was probably the most popular man in 

 the college, and his rooms the chief centre of attraction. Intimate 

 friends were glad, when their own work was over, to enjoy his 

 original conversation, and not seldom his extravagant fun. ... Of 

 the leading men in Cambridge sixty years ago, no one made so 

 lasting or so favourable an impression on all who were brought 

 into contact with him as Sedgwick." 



We must, however, pass rapidly over the many interesting topics 

 that are brought forward in these volumes. Throughout his life much 

 of Sedgwick's time was occupied in matters relating to his College 



