122 
LIFE OF DEAN BUCKLAND . 
[CH. V. 
that of the friends whom he would probably meet. Among 
these was the Duke of Sussex, 1 who was to be his guest at 
Christ Church. Sedgwick had rather ridiculed the notion 
of such a gathering when it was first proposed, and had 
protested that he would not leave Wales for either York 
or Oxford. Murchison, however, made him break his 
resolution in favour of the latter city, and his friend’s 
warm invitation clinched the matter. 
It may be said that at Oxford the British Association 
made her most brilliant debut . Only thirteen years pre¬ 
viously had geology been recognised by the University as 
a science, when its Professor was appointed, and, after much 
opposition to the new learning, all Oxford seems to have 
united in welcoming with boundless hospitality the 
savants of the day. The Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Jones 
Collier, gave a public breakfast in Exeter College Gardens, 
and a free supply of refreshments was furnished to the 
evening meetings in the Clarendon Buildings. The Arch¬ 
bishop of York (Vernon Harcourt) sent a fatted buck from 
Nuneham Park ; the Duke of Buckingham also supplied 
venison ; and never before were there witnessed such 
scientific enthusiasm, goodwill, and friendship among all 
classes in the old University and Cathedral town. 2 
One burning question which the Committee of the 
1 The Duke of Sussex was at this time President of the Royal 
Society. 
2 “ We ascribe the success of the Association exclusively to its 
migratory' character. The learned junta, now so gigantic and over¬ 
whelming, sprang from a lowly origin. Four years ago a few unpre¬ 
tending individuals, full of zeal for experimental science, met together 
at York for the formation of a philosophic union, in modest imitation of 
