NO.120
T H E T R U S T Y S E RVA N T
William’s son, Frank Buckland (Coll,
1839-44), was no less keen on nature. His
mother recorded the visit of a Devonshire
priest, excited by some fossils he had
found. William called in the five-year-old
Frank and asked him what they were.
‘The vertebrae of an ichthyothauruth’,
lisped the child to the unfortunate priest.
William Buckland discovers a hyena den.
Cartoon by William Conybeare, 1822
silt above. Instead, he suggested a series of
not-quite-biblical floods. This
Catastrophist theory, however, left the
sequence of different fossils in successive
strata unexplained. In his 1836
Bridgewater Treatise, Geology and
Mineralogy considered with reference to
Natural Theology, he proposed, in addition
to his floods, repeated divine creation of
animals. He was eventually weaned off
floods by Louis Agassiz, who showed him
the effects of ice on the landforms of
Switzerland, and he switched to a theory
of geological eras including an ice age.
While at Winchester, Frank trapped
field mice on St Catherine’s Hill and
roasted them: ‘a splendid bonne bouche for a
hungry boy’. In later life he enthusiastically
ate exotic body parts, such as elephant’s
trunk, and founded the Acclimatization
Society to bring new species to Britain; a
Society dinner in 1862 offered kangaroo,
curassow and sea-slug. This diet may have
contributed to his remarkable figure,
described as ‘four-and-a-half feet in height
and rather more in breadth.’
At Oxford he caused a stir by dressing
his pet bear in academic cap and gown for
a visit to the British Association. He
trained as a surgeon, but switched to
natural history, becoming a popular
columnist, lecturer and author of books
such as Curiosities of Natural History and
Notes and Jottings from Animal Life.
Fossil-hunting, zoophagy,
birdwatching, fly fishing and keeping
unusual pets are among the activities in
which Wykehamists have led the way,
encouraging the English to enjoy nature.
Whether religious or secular, sporting or
scientific, solitary or sociable, many of us
find nature utterly fascinating.
■
Ian’s latest book, ‘The English Love
Affair with Nature’, was published in 2015.
Silhouette of William Buckland in academic gown, his
wife, and Frank Buckland as a boy
Gunner’s Hole in the 1950s
Dr John Gunner (Coll, 58-63) dips into the
past:
‘Gunner, as in the Hole