William Buckland

William Buckland He obtained his BA degree in 1804 and William Buckland continued in residence, supporting himself on was one of the his scholarship and by taking pupils. greatest geologists of Buckland’s early friendship with William his time; a man of Broderip, who came up to Oxford in 1807, was great energy, he was described thus by their contemporary, the University’s first Roderick Murchison: “The study of the Reader in Geology. collection made by his juvenile companion … This article gives an first awakened the dormant talent of overview of his life Buckland … So strongly did Buckland feel in and work, including after years the deep obligations he was under to young Broderip, that I have myself heard an account of his William Buckland, 1832 description of him speak of the latter as his ‘tutor in The hyaena skull in his 2 Megalosaurus, the hands is currently on display Geology’.” first named dinosaur. in the Museum. Although he never neglected his Child and student 1784-1808 formal studies, William Buckland was Buckland also born in Axminster, found time to Devon, on 12 March 1784, enlarge his the eldest son of Charles scientific know- Buckland, Rector of ledge, attending Corpus Christi College, Oxford Templeton and Trusham, the lectures of John and his wife Elizabeth. Kidd on mineralogy and chemistry and those “The first cause of Dr. The Axminster of Christopher Pegge on anatomy. During the Buckland’s attention to coat-of-arms vacations he searched for the field evidence fossil organic remains was the fact, that near which was then being brought together in his birthplace at Axminster were large order to establish the geological succession of quarries of lias, abounding in fossil organic strata in England. In 1808 he obtained his MA remains. His father … took great interest in degree and was made a Fellow of his college; the improvement of roads, &c., and was he was ordained priest the same year. accustomed to take his son with him on his walks; from the above-mentioned quarries both father and son collected Ammonites, and What is ‘Learning more’? other shells, which thus became familiar to ‘Learning more’ presents a series of articles the lad from his infancy.” 1 about the Museum and its collections. It is At first Buckland was educated at home under designed for older students, teachers, his father’s instruction, and at Axminster researchers, and anyone who wants to find School, but in 1797 he entered Blundell’s out more about particular aspects of the school in Tiverton, in order to receive a better Museum’s work and its history. preparation for university entrance. A year This article gives an account of the life and later he moved to St Mary’s College, work of William Buckland, the geologist, Winchester, where he progressed well enough cleric and eccentric. through the narrow formal education, ‘Learning more’ articles are free, and continuing to develop his interest in natural available to all for educational, non-profit history in his spare time. In 1801, with the purposes. Unless otherwise stated, the help of some coaching from his uncle, he won Museum retains copyright of all material a scholarship to Corpus Christi College, used in this leaflet. Oxford, and thus began his Oxford career. © Oxford University Museum of Natural History Page 1 Learning more... William Buckland

The charismatic lecturer 1809-1818 long showcase ... He had in his hand a huge From 1808 to 1812 hyaena’s skull. He suddenly dashed down the Buckland made frequent steps - rushed skull in hand at the first geological excursions on undergraduate on the front bench and horseback to various parts shouted ‘What rules the world?’ The youth, of England, Scotland, terrified, threw himself against the next back Ireland and Wales. “He seat, and answered not a word. He rushed rode a favourite old black then on to me, pointing the hyaena full in my mare, who was frequently face - ‘What rules the world?’ ‘Haven’t an caparisoned all over with idea’, I said. ‘The stomach, sir’, he cried (again heavy bags of fossils and One of Buckland’s mounting the rostrum) ‘rules the world. The ponderous hammers. The geological lectures, great ones eat the less, the less the lesser old mare soon learnt her duty, 1823 still.’” 4 and seemed to take interest in her master’s Buckland also had responsibilities in the pursuits; for she would remain quiet without museum on the upper floor of the Ashmolean, anyone to hold her, while he was examining as he himself explained, “being [unofficial] sections and strata, and then patiently submit Curator of the Collection and shewman of it, to be loaded with interesting but weighty or private lecturer to every stranger, foreign specimens. Ultimately she became so or domestic, that comes to Oxford … I have accustomed to her work, that she eventually also to shew hospitality to such strangers and came to a full stop at a stone quarry, and to hold constant correspondence and nothing would persuade her to proceed until exchanging of specimens with foreigners of all the rider had got off and examined (or, if a countrys … also to give private instruction to stranger to her, pretended to examine) the young men travelling abroad, or relating to 3 quarry.” their own property at home.” 5 At the same In 1813 Kidd resigned as time, he was continually adding to his own Reader of Mineralogy, large collection of rocks, minerals and fossils, and Buckland was which he kept in his rooms in Corpus. appointed his successor, In 1816 Buckland began taking up residence on his European tours, the ground floor of the which would eventually Old Ashmolean building take him to Germany, in Broad Street (now the Poland, Austria, Italy, Museum of the History of The Old Ashmolean Switzerland and France. Building Science). From the outset, In the course of his Buckland sought to introduce travels, he brought to the increasing amounts of geology and museum large and palaeontology into his lectures, which were valuable collections, and always well-attended, not only by students but to the geologists of A field trip to Shotover also by senior members of the university. By England observations of all accounts, the lectures were very lively phenomena then little known to them. He also events, with liberal use of specimens, and of became acquainted with other European large-scale geological maps and diagrams. scientists. In 1818 Georges Cuvier visited him Buckland’s own colourful personality also in Oxford and was shown a collection of contributed to the popularising of his lectures. enormous bones from Stonesfield. These Henry Acland, as a student, attended bones were later recognised as those of the Buckland’s lectures and described his dinosaur Megalosaurus, and would form the lecturing style thus: “He paced like a basis of one for the most important scientific Franciscan preacher up and down behind a papers of Buckland’s career. © Oxford University Museum of Natural History Page 2 Learning more... William Buckland

Reader in Geology 1819-1824 Flood being no more than to cover bones already present with a layer of mud. In 1818 Buckland persuaded the Prince Regent to endow By 1823 the account had been expanded into a a second Readership, this full-scale treatise on Buckland’s cavern time in Geology, which he research, Reliquiae Diluvianae, or, could hold in addition to his Observations on the Organic Remains mineralogical appointment. attesting the Action of a Universal Deluge, in He delivered his inaugural which he argued that the remains of animals address on 15 May 1819; it found in caves provide clues as to the was subsequently published inhabitants and character of the earth before in 1820 under the title of the Great Flood recorded in Genesis. The Vindiciae Geologiae; or the The Noachian Flood book sold rapidly, and recognition of Connexion of Geology with Religion Buckland’s achievement was widespread. explained. The aim of the lecture was to justify Despite his success, the inclusion of the new science of geology financial remuneration for alongside the established studies of the Buckland’s work remained University, but the compatibility of geological modest and, for the evidence with biblical accounts of Creation moment, he continued to and the Noachian Flood was also addressed. live in college. Roderick Buckland set out the facts as he saw them, Murchison thus describes noting clear evidence for a universal deluge, a visit paid to Buckland’s and introducing the hypothesis that the word rooms in the winter of “beginning” as used in Genesis expressed an 1824-5: “On repairing Paviland Cave, undefined period of time between the origin of from the Star Inn to South Wales the earth and the creation of its current Buckland’s domicile in inhabitants, a period during which a long Corpus Christi College, I can never forget the series of revolutions had occurred with scene which awaited me. Having, by direction successive creations of new plant and animal of the janitor, climbed up a narrow staircase, I groups. entered a long corridor-like room … which For the next few years, was filled with rocks, shells and bones in dire Buckland was busy confusion, and in a sort of sanctum at the end developing his under- was my friend in his black gown looking like a standing of the supposed necromancer, sitting on the one only rickety deluge, as seen in his 1822 chair not covered with fossils, and cleaning 6 account of the fossil bones out a fossil bone from the matrix.” (elephant, rhinoceros, Buckland enters In 1824 Buckland became hippopotamus, horse, ox, Kirkdale Cave President of the Geological deer, hyaena, tiger, bear, wolf, fox, rodents Society, and it was at his and birds) found at Kirkdale Cave in first meeting in this office Yorkshire. Until this time, it was commonly that he finally announced assumed that such remains were testimony to the discovery at Stonesfield animals that had perished in the Flood and of the bones of a giant been carried from their original homes in the reptile, which he named Gailenreuth Cave, tropics by the surging waters. To Buckland, Megalosaurus, or “great Germany however, the great quantity of hyaena remains lizard”, on account of its vast size. The paper and the splintered state of all the bones was published later that year, and forms the pointed to a quite different conclusion - that first full account of what would later be called the cave had actually been inhabited by a dinosaur. The bones Buckland studied are hyaenas in antediluvian times, the effect of the now on display in the Museum. © Oxford University Museum of Natural History Page 3 Learning more... William Buckland

Canon of Christ Church 1825-1836 it suddenly occurred to him In 1825 Buckland resigned that these impressions were his college fellowship and those of a species of accepted the living of Stoke tortoise. He therefore called Charity in Hampshire. his wife to come down to However, he failed to take make some paste, while he up the appointment, for a went and fetched the few months later he was tortoise from the garden. made a Canon of Christ On his return he found the Church, then one of the kitchen table covered with richest governmental paste, upon which the rewards for academic tortoise was placed. The distinction. In December Christ Church, delight of this scientific Fossil footprints Oxford he married Mary Morland couple may be imagined when they found that of Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Though only 28 at the footmarks of the tortoise on the paste the time, Mary was already an accomplished were identical with those on the sandstone draughtswoman and collector of fossils, and slab.” 8 had contributed illustrations to the works of Buckland continued to give his annual courses both William Conybeare and George Cuvier. of lectures in geology and mineralogy, but his Their shared passion for geology is evident in working environment was about to change. their honeymoon tour, which lasted a year and Until this point the Ashmolean’s laboratory included visits to many famous geologists and and lecture rooms had fulfilled the geological locations in France, Germany, University’s requirements in the teaching of Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Sicily. natural sciences, but the explosive Buckland and his wife had a large family - development of these disciplines in the early nine children, five of whom survived to decades of the nineteenth century led rapidly adulthood. The eldest son, Frank, gives the to a need for new and greatly expanded following account of his mother and her facilities in this field. Between 1830 and 1832 contribution to Buckland’s work: “Not only the geological and mineralogical collections, was she a pious, amiable, and excellent together with their professor, were helpmate to my father; but being naturally progressively removed from the Ashmolean to endowed with great mental powers, habits of more spacious quarters in the adjacent perseverance and order, tempered by Clarendon building. excellent judgement, she materially assisted In 1836 Buckland’s Bridgewater her husband in his literary labours, and often Treatise made its appearance, gave to them a polish which added not a little after nearly five years of hard to their merit … Not only with her pen did she work. The series was render material assistance, but her natural intended to prove “the talent in the use of her pencil enabled her to Power, Wisdom, and give accurate illustrations and finished Goodness of God as drawings … She was also particularly clever manifested in the Creation” and neat in mending broken fossils … It was and Buckland’s contribution, Ammonite, from 7 her occupation also to label the specimens.” Geology and Mineralogy, Geology and Mineralogy, 1836 It was also in this period of Buckland’s life covered similar ground to his “that a slab of sandstone with … footmarks Vindiciae Geologiae of 1820. It was, however, was sent him to decipher. He was greatly much larger, forming a compendium of puzzled; but at last, one night, or rather geological and palaeontological science to between two and three in the morning, when, date, enriched by numerous reflections of a according to his wont, he was busy writing, highly philosophic character. © Oxford University Museum of Natural History Page 4 Learning more... William Buckland

The scientific celebrity 1837-1844 Society, of which Buckland By 1837, Buckland had was again President. attained a high position in Despite the powerful the scientific world beyond arguments put forward by Oxford. The Royal Society, the two men, the response the British Association and from the Society was almost the Geological Society all uniformly hostile. provided him with a forum, Nevertheless, Buckland and he was prominent in was satisfied that he had Louis Agassiz support of agricultural, found the true origin of civil engineering and many of the surface deposits covering Britain. archaeological societies. William Buckland, Needless to say, Buckland’s growing family He lectured, entertained circa 1843 continued to play a large part in his life, as and travelled widely, and his described by his daughter Elizabeth: friendship with the Tory prime minister “Buckland was a kind and affectionate father, Robert Peel gave him access to a wide and and always liked to have his children about influential circle. With Adam Sedgwick and him … The young people were always Charles Lyell, he prepared the report that presented to the numerous learned foreigners resulted in the formation of the Geological and illustrious travellers who came to Oxford Survey of Great Britain, and he also helped to see the Professor’s world-famed collection towards the establishment of the School of of fossils and bones at the Clarendon; and at Mines and the Mining Records Office. dessert in the evening they were told, shortly Around this time, Buckland and graphically, what these great men were at last discovered a new famous for.” 9 explanation for some of the At the same time, geological phenomena Buckland’s eccentricities which he had previously seemed to be becoming attributed to the Great increasingly pronounced. Flood. In 1838 he travelled Rock scratched by a glacier He used to say that he had to Switzerland to meet Louis eaten his way straight Agassiz and to examine for himself the through the animal polished and striated rocks and transported kingdom, and guests attest material that Agassiz had attributed to the to the many curious agency of ancient glaciers. Although sceptical delicacies served at his at first, Buckland soon found the evidence table - John Ruskin, for overwhelming and became an enthusiastic example, always regretted Costume of the Glaciers, 1841 convert to the theory. Moreover, he began to a day of unlucky engagement recognise direct parallels between the glacial on which he missed a delicate phenomena of Switzerland and similar toast of mice. At times, however, this phenomena he had observed in Scotland, propensity seemed to get a little out of hand, Wales and northern England. as related by the famous raconteur Augustus In 1840, Agassiz came to Britain for the Hare: “Talk of strange relics led to mention of Glasgow meeting of the British Association, at the heart of a French King preserved at which he described the action of glaciers and Nuneham in a silver casket. Dr. Buckland, the deposits associated with them, before whilst looking at it, exclaimed, ‘I have eaten accompanying Buckland on an extended tour many strange things, but have never eaten the to examine the evidence for former glaciation heart of a king before,’ and, before anyone in Scotland. They returned to London to could hinder him, he had gobbled it up, and present their findings to the Geological the precious relic was lost for ever.” 10 © Oxford University Museum of Natural History Page 5 Learning more... William Buckland

Dean of Westminster 1845-1856 fitted up a recreation room In 1845, much to his for the village lads, started surprise, Buckland was a night school, and appointed Dean of preached earnest, Westminster on the practical sermons, recommendation of his thoroughly adapted to friend Robert Peel. He the needs of his rural immediately instigated congregation. Meanwhile, repairs to the abbey in the village school, “Mrs. Buckland … gave the boys Sillouette of and the school. He was Mary Buckland also determined to make instruction on geography William Buckland, and the use of the globes, which she had made the school an effective circa 1845 modern educational out of paper and inflated, showing them at the institution. “Rising soon after seven, he same time … the homes of foreign products, and supplying specimens of the sugarcane, worked on incessantly till two and three 13 o’clock the next morning, allowing himself the tea tree, and other articles of daily use.” scarcely any time for meals and still less for Towards the end of 1849, recreation; … notwithstanding his important Buckland contracted a occupations, he still found time to travel to debilitating illness and fro from Oxford, to lecture on his characterised by apathy favourite science.” 11 and depression. His doctors Despite his continuing recommended the quiet passion for geology, and fresh air of Islip, and Buckland seems to the sight of the garden and Old Rectory, Islip have lost heart in the his favourite allotments battle to establish it as seemed to cheer him for a time, but his a formal part of the symptoms continued to worsen. He lingered university curriculum, on in a poor state for a further seven years, Westminster Abbey for in 1847 he refused finally dying on 14 August 1856. It was only to add his signature to a document, prepared when the grave-digger came to excavate the by some of his scientific colleagues, asking for reserved plot in the local graveyard that a building to house the natural science Buckland’s final geological jest was revealed, teaching collections and provide the necessary since the chosen spot was, as he must have accommodation and laboratory facilities for known, on an outcrop of solid Jurassic the scientific professors. His reasons for his limestone just a few inches below the ground. refusal to sign were rather an expression of In the end explosives had to be used to despair than of lack of regard: “Some years excavate the grave, inevitably reminding all ago I was sanguine, as you are now, as to the who heard about it of Richard Whatley’s Elegy possibility of Natural History making some intended for Professor Buckland, written in progress in Oxford, but I have long come to 1820: 12 the conclusion that it is utterly hopeless.” Where shall we our great With Buckland’s appointment as Dean of Professor inter Westminster came the That in peace may rest his bones? living of Islip, a village If we hew him a rocky sepulchre seven miles from Oxford. He’ll rise and break the stones Here Buckland laid out And examine each stratum that allotments for the lies around labourers, conducted For he’s quite in his element agricultural experiments, Professor Buckwheat underground. © Oxford University Museum of Natural History Page 6 Learning more... William Buckland

References Further reading 1 Buckland, F.T. 1858. Boylan, P.J. 1978. The Role of William Buckland Memoir of the Very Rev. (1784-1856) in the Recognition of Glaciation in the William Buckland, D.D., British Isles. Zusamm. VIII Symposium INHIGEO F.R.S., Dean of Munster 12-24 Sept. 1978, 33. Westminster. XIX-LXX. Boylan, P.J. 1997. William Buckland (1784-1856) and In Buckland, W. 1858. the foundations of taphonomy and palaeoecology. Geology and Mineralogy Archs Nat. Hist., 24 (3), 361-372. considered with Cannon, W.F. 1970. Buckland, William. pp. 566-572. reference to Natural In Gillespie, C.C. (ed.). Dictionary of Scientific Theology, 3rd edition, Biography. Vol. 1. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, edited by F.T. Buckland. George Routledge 620 pp. & Co., London, LXXXIII + 552 pp. Delair, J.B. and Sarjeant, W.A.S. 1975. The Earliest 2 Buckland, F.T. 1858. As above. Discoverers of Dinosaurs. Isis, 66 (231), 5-25. 3 Buckland, F.T. 1858. As above. Edmonds, J.M. 1956. William Buckland (1784-1856).

4 Nature, 178, 290-291. Gordon, Mrs [E.O.]. 1894. The life and correspondence of William Buckland, Edmonds, J.M. 1978. Patronage and Privilege in D.D., F.R.S., sometime Dean of Education: A Devon Boy Goes to School, 1798. Rep. Westminster, twice president of the Trans. Devon. Ass. Advmt. Sci., III, 95-111. Geological Society, and first president of Edmonds, J.M. 1979. The Founding of the Oxford the British Association. John Murray, Readership in Geology, 1818. Notes Rec. R. Soc. London, XVI + 288 pp. Lond., 34, 33-51. 5 Edmonds, J.M. 1979. The Founding of the Edmonds, J.M. 1991. Vindiciae Geologicae, Oxford Readership in Geology, 1818. Notes published 1820; the inaugural lecture of William Rec. R. Soc. Lond., 34, 33-51. Buckland. Archs Nat. Hist., 18 (2), 255-268. 6 Geikie, A. 1875. Life of Sir Roderick I. Edmonds, J.M. and Douglas, J.A. 1976. William Murchison, BART., K.C.B., F.R.S., Buckland, F.R.S. (1784-1856) and an Oxford Lecture, sometime director-general of the 1823. Notes Rec. R. Soc. Lond., 30 (3), 141-167. Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, Hunt, R. 1908. Buckland, William (1784-1856). pp. based on his journals and letters with 206-208. In Stephen, L. and Lee, S. (eds). Dictionary notices of the scientific contemporaries of National Biography. Vol. 3. Smith Elder & Co., and a sketch of the rise and growth of London, 1335 pp. palaeozoic geology in Britain. John Kölbl-Ebert, M. 1997. Mary Buckland (née Morland) Murray, London, 2 vols. 1797-1857. Earth Sci. Hist., 16 (1), 33-38. 7 Buckland, F.T. 1858. As above. MacGregor, A. and Headon, A. 2000. Re-inventing 8 Gordon, Mrs [E.O.]. 1894. As above. the Ashmolean: natural history and natural theology at Oxford in the 1820s to 1850s. Archs Nat. Hist., 27 9 Gordon, Mrs [E.O.]. 1894. As above. (3), 369-406. 10 Hare, A. 1952. The story of my life. Vol. MacGregor, A. 2001. The Ashmolean Museum: A brief 5. George Allen, London, XIX + 470 pp, 6 history of the institution and its collections. pls. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in association with

11 Jonathan Horne publications, London, 80 pp. Buckland, F.T. 1858. As above. Rupke, N.A. 1983. The Great Chain of History: 12 Edmonds, J.M. 1956. William Buckland William Buckland and the English School of Geology (1784-1856). Nature, 178, 290-291. (1814-1849). Oxford University Press, Oxford, XII + 13 Gordon, Mrs [E.O.]. 1894. As above. 322 pp.