XIV 



he entered Christ Church, Oxon., with the advantage of the personal 

 friendship of Cyril Jackson, the Dean. At that time Conybeare and Peel 

 were conspicuous members of his College, and the University was leading to 

 eminence Buckland, Keble, and "Whately. Dr. Kidd had been for some 

 years an admirable teacher of Chemistry, and to this attractive subject (to 

 which his attention had first been drawn by Dr. Isaac Milner, who was 

 Dean of Carlisle when his father was Bishop of that diocese) Mr. Har- 

 court clung with affectionate fidelity through all his subsequent life. 



Soon after leaving the University (in 1811) Mr. Harcourt began his 

 duties as clergyman at Bishopthorpe, close to his father's residence, and 

 speedily manifested the good effects of his Oxford career by associating 

 himself with the movement then beginning in Yorkshire, in favour of 

 institutions for the cultivation of science. He constructed a laboratory, 

 and became greatly occupied in chemical analysis, not a little aided and 

 encouraged in this pursuit by his early friends, Davy and "Wollaston. The 

 latter explained to him some of the methods of qualitative analysis on a 

 small scale, in which he was unrivalled. The great ideas of the former 

 he kept steadily in view. From Buckland and the brothers Conybeare 

 he acquired a settled partiality for the then rapidly advancing science of 

 Geology. 



In 1821 the famous cavern of Kirkdale was opened in Yorkshire, and 

 zealously explored by Buckland. Some of the treasures of this rich re- 

 pository of prehistoric life-forms were divided among several explorers in 

 Yorkshire, and three of these, viz. Mr. Atkinson, Mr. Salmond, and Mr. 

 Thorpe, concurred in a resolution to reunite them in one collection, as a 

 basis for a Yorkshire museum of natural history and antiquities. Of the 

 institution which was established in consequence of this arrangement, the 

 "Yorkshire Philosophical Society," Mr. Harcourt was chosen President, 

 and by all the means at his disposal extended its influence, and animated 

 and directed its energies. 



The geology of Yorkshire had begun to attract attention ; and one of 

 the earliest engagements for public lectures was contracted in 1824 with 

 Mr. Smith, the author of the first geological map of the county, as well 

 as of the first map of the strata of England and Wales. In 1826 Mr. 

 Phillips was appointed to be the keeper of the Yorkshire Museum, then 

 contained in a small house ; but from this time it grew so rapidly as to 

 require the erection of a spacious building, with library, lecture-room, and 

 laboratory, at a cost of s69000. During many years Mr. Harcourt and 

 his younger friend just named might be often met engaged in geological 

 explorations*. The laboratory, now removed to "Wheldrake, was never 

 unemployed T; the monthly meetings of the Society heard always from 



* See " Geology of the district round Caves," in Phil. Mag. May 1826 ; and 1 On a 

 Deposit of Bones at ISortb cliff,' 1829. 



t See papers on Phosphates of Lead, on Scarbroite, on Lapis Lazuli, on Cadmium 

 in Zinc Ore, &c., in Phil. Mag. & Ann. 



