WCP3977

[1]

30, Cumberland Road,

Kew.

1^st.. November 1910.

My dear Meldola¹

Thanks for your postcard. Perhaps I ought to explain further what I said about Lyell² and the Geological Society and Oxford.

The opposition with which Lyell was met at the Geological Society, has [2] died (if it is even now dead) very slowly. I have talked to many of the old generation who shook their heads gravely over "poor Lyell's fads."

In the present generation the desire to go back to "the beginning["] is still very strong — and when this feeling is not dominant Lyell's services are minimised in Comparison [3] with those of Hutton.³

At Oxford unfortunately Buckland⁴ was succeeded by men of the old school – Phillips⁵ — who always "sat on the fence" and Prestwich,⁶ Catastrophist to the last. Both dear old fellows, but not helpful for evolution. Nor does the present holder of the Chair^{7 (}entre nous⁾ — though a man of real genius — count reverence for "the fathers" among his [3] many virtues. I think that Poulton⁸ & Bourne⁹are fully aware of the greatness reflected in Oxford by Lyell.

Ray Lankester,¹⁰ who belonged to Exeter, Lyell's College, got them to put a portrait of Lyell in the Common room — ^{He is a firm believer in Lyell.}

But Oxford does not regard Lyell as Cambridge does Darwin.¹¹

I am glad you are going to review the little book.¹² Hooker & Wallace have both written me the most charming letters. Wallace was greatly surprised to read the quotation on page 85, of Lyell's letter to Herschel¹³ in 1836[.]

Yours very faithfully | John W. Judd¹⁴ [signature]