CHAPTER V. 
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT OXFORD, 1832 ; THE 
MEGATHERIUM ; THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT 
BRISTOL, 1836; FOREIGN AND ENGLISH FRIENDS; 
THE QUEEN AT OXFORD, 1 84 1 . 
1831 —1841. 
t HE year 1831 brought to light the first germ of the 
1 British Association. Mr. (afterwards Sir David) 
Brewster proposed that a “craft should be built wherein 
the united crew of British science could sail.” His 
notion found an enthusiastic supporter in the Rev. W. 
Vernon Harcourt, a great lover of science, who invited all 
Philosophical Societies in Great Britain to meet at York. 
Buckland, who was unable to be present, owing to the 
death of a child, writes to express his “ bitter disappoint¬ 
ment ” at his enforced absence. He was chosen President 
of the next meeting, which was held the following year 
at Oxford. 
An old geological pupil of his, the Rev. W. Egerton, the 
present Rector of Whitchurch, Salop, has kindly placed at 
the service of the biographer Buckland’s humorous letter 
of congratulation to his brother, Sir Philip Egerton, 
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