Sir Charles Lyell, BaronetScottish geologist

born Nov. 14, 1797, Kinnordy, Forfarshire, Scot. died Feb. 22, 1875, London

Lyell was born at Kinnordy, the stately family home at the foot of the Grampian Mountains in eastern Scotland. His principal childhood associations, however, were with the New Forest near Southampton, Eng., where his parents moved before he was two years old. His father, a naturalist who later turned to more literary pursuits, kept the study well stocked with books on every subject, including geology. The eldest of 10 children, Charles attended a series of private schools, where he was not a particularly diligent student; he much preferred rambles in the New Forest and his father’s instruction at home to those places, with their schoolboy pranks and pecking orders whose spirit he never really shared. His first scientific hobby was collecting butterflies and aquatic insects, an activity pursued intensively for some years, even though labelled unmanly by local residents. His observations went far beyond those of any ordinary boy, and later this instinct for collecting and comparing led to important discoveries.

At 19 Lyell entered Oxford University, where his interest in classics, mathematics, and geology was stimulated, the latter by the enthusiastic lectures of William Buckland, later widely known for his attempt to prove Noah’s Flood by studies of fossils from cave deposits. Lyell spent the long vacations between terms travelling and conducting geological studies. Notes made in 1817 on the origin of the Yarmouth lowlands clearly foreshadow his later work. The penetrating geological and cultural observations Lyell made while on a continental tour with his family in 1818 were as remarkable as the number of miles he walked in a day. In December 1819 he earned a B.A. with honours and moved to London to study law.