HUGHES : ADAM SEDGWICK. 
257 
others who have made their mark in the world. 
He boarded along’ with three other boys, at a farmhouse kept 
by a Quaker. “ We were treated by the family,” he says “ with 
infinite kindness, and our happy freedom made us the envy of our 
schoolfellows.” Here he gained the habit of early rising, and he 
kept it all through his after life, to the very last. 
In 1804 Sedgwick entered Trinity College, Cambridge, and 
struggled amongst men, and in the battle of the brains acheived a 
noble position ; a splendid scholar all round, but overworked, he 
was advised, probably he himself suggested the prescription, to be 
more in the open air, and see whether nature would restore the 
balance. So he forsook much of his classical and mathematical work, 
and gave his time to the study of Geology ; but he was now 
entangled in many varied interests, and he could not give up all the 
academic ties. However, into this part of his history I do not 
now purpose to enquire. I pass over his life at Norwich, where as 
Canon he resided in the old cathedral close a long part of every year. 
Nor will I dwell upon the part he took in college and university 
affairs, at one time as Vice-Master of Trinity, at another as secretary 
to the Prince Consort, Chancellor of the University, in times of grave 
interest. I go on to speak of his Geological works. 
The recollection of Professor Sedgwick’s personal character is 
still bright. His influence in moulding and guiding the opinions of 
his time is well known ; but many would be rather at a loss to say 
what he did directly for geology. He wrote no great text book ; 
he was not for ever watching, for fear any one should take an idea, 
or copy a sentence from him without acknowledgement ; he talked 
freely to every one, giving them results of his original observations, 
he once said himself, I never had a geological secret in my life. 
But with all this, perhaps because of this, his papers are not so 
generally referred to. The presence of the man was so great, the 
personality is looked back upon as so strong, that the writings are 
not much appealed to in forming our estimate of him. 
A short sketch of some of his published works may not therefore 
be wholly without profit and interest for a Yorkshire audience. 
When he was appointed to fill the Woodwardian chair at 
