VI 
PREFACE. 
Life of Dr. Buckland, written under considerable difficulty 
and nearly four decades after his death, we are brought 
face to face with the old order of things, and we can realise 
how great is the evolution that has taken place since his 
time. It is a sketch of no mere personal interest, but 
valuable as throwing light upon social and scientific con¬ 
ditions which have long passed away. It illustrates the 
position of science at Oxford during the first fifty years 
of the century. 
It also fills a blank in the history of the founders of 
geology—William Smith, Sedgwick, De la Beche, Mur¬ 
chison, Phillips, and Lyell. Among these Buckland stands 
in the foremost rank. He began his work earlier than any 
of them, excepting William Smith, and the main difference 
between him and Sedgwick lies in the fact that he was 
a geologist from his youth up, while Sedgwick, strangely 
enough, was allured into geological studies by being 
appointed Woodwardian Professor at Cambridge . 1 
In this preface, made at the request of the authoress, I 
shall draw attention to those points in Buckland’s geolog¬ 
ical career which appear to me, an Oxford man long after 
his time, and profoundly influenced by his work, to be most 
noteworthy. Of the other aspects of his many-sided genius 
I shall say nothing. Nor shall I say anything about his 
advancement in the Church or of his social position at 
1 This statement sounds almost incredible. We have it, however, 
on Sedgwick’s own authority. On his appointment, he said cha¬ 
racteristically: “Hitherto I have never turned a stone, now I will 
leave no stone unturned.” His friend Dr. Ainger, congratulating him 
on the appointment, writes that it “ will sometimes lead you to pile 
up stones, as well as to range them in your lecture-room.” 
