50 Eminent Living Geologists : Rev. Osmond Fisher. 



la 1845 he was ordained priest, resided for a short time at 

 Cambridge, and in the following year was appointed curate-in- 

 charge of All Saints, Dorchester, where he lived for seven 

 years. Here his leisure time was spent in geologizing along the 

 Kidgway fault and in the neighbourhood generally. He frequently 

 visited his uncle, Mr. Cookson, at Poorstock, near Bridport, and 

 collected many fossils from the Inferior Oolite there, which are 

 now in the Woodwardian and Dorset County Museums, the latter 

 of which he assisted in founding. While he was at Dorchester the 

 Geological Survey began mapping the district, and Mr. Fisher was 

 able to give many hints to Mr. Bristow, who was in charge of the 

 work. He also met A. C. Eamsay and E. Forbes when they came 

 down to inspect its progress. 



In 1853 Mr. Fisher became tutor of Jesus College, Cambridge. 

 He had on previous occasions attended some of Sedgwick's lectures, 

 and so made an acquaintance, which now ripened into friendship. 

 Sedgwick had been his proposer when he was elected a Fellow of 

 the Geological Society in 1852. 



The busy life of a College tutor left little leisure for geology in 

 term-time, but the vacations were still spent in Dorchester, where 

 he worked hard at the Purbeck rocks. The results of his studies 

 are contained in a paper read before the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society in 1854. The greater part of the collections he made at this 

 time are now in the "Woodwardian Museum, and include a series of 

 fossil insects which have never yet been described. He afterwards 

 took up the geology of the Bracklesham Beds, and gave the results 

 of his investigations in a paper read before the Geological Society 

 in 1862. The fossils then obtained are likewise to be found in the 

 Woodwardian Museum. 



In 1857 Mr. Fisher was presented by his College to the living 

 of Elmstead, near Colchester, and was married to Maria Louisa, 

 daughter of Mr. Hastings N. Middleton, then residing at Ilsington 

 House, near Dorchester. While at Elmstead he spent a week with 

 Henslow in Suffolk, and afterwards collected a little from the Crag 

 and Pleistocene beds at Walton-on-the-Naze. In the absence of 

 other more interesting subjects, he now turned his attention to 

 denudation. His work on the ' trail,' which was done at this time, 

 is perhaps one of the most important of his purely geological 

 investigations. In 1867 he removed to Harlton Eectory, another 

 College living, but shortly afterwards was left a widower, with five 

 sons, all of whom are now living.^ 



Harlton is a quiet country village about six miles from Cambridge, 

 far enough from railway-lines and main roads to acquire a certain 

 sense of retirement, but close enough to a great centre of learning to 

 stimulate thought and encourage original investigation. There are 

 few villages in England so well known by name to geologists, many 

 of whom have experienced the kindly hospitality of its present 

 Kector. 



^ Some of the facts above given are, by the kind permission of the anonymoua 

 author, taken from an article in the Cambridge Itevieu; March 16, 1893. 



