View source for William Buckland

{{short description|English geologist and palaeontologist (1784–1856)}}
{{Other people}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix = [[The Reverend]]
| alma_mater = [[Winchester College]],<br/>[[Corpus Christi College, Oxford]]
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| death_date = 14 August 1856 (aged 72)
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| birth_date = 12 March 1784
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| birth_place = [[Axminster]], Devon, England
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| honorific_prefix = [[The Very Reverend]]
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Mary Morland]] |1825}}
| death_place = [[Islip, Oxfordshire]], England
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| title = [[Dean of Westminster]]
| image = Portrait of The Reverend William Buckland, D.D. F.R.S (4672228).jpg
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| name = William Buckland
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| honorific-suffix = [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]]
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| module = {{Infobox scientist
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| field             = [[Palaeontology]]
| known_for         = ''[[Megalosaurus]]'', [[coprolite]]s
| awards            = [[Copley Medal]] (1822)<br />[[Wollaston Medal]] (1848)
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'''William Buckland''' [[Doctor of Divinity|DD]], [[Royal Society|FRS]] (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian, [[geologist]] and [[paleontology|palaeontologist]]. 

His work in the early 1820s proved that [[Kirkdale Cave]] in [[North Yorkshire]] had been a prehistoric [[hyena]] den, for which he was awarded the [[Copley Medal]]. It was praised as an example of how scientific analysis could reconstruct events in the distant past. He pioneered the use of fossilised [[Feces|faeces]] in reconstructing ecosystems, coining the term [[coprolite]]s.  Buckland also wrote the first full account of a [[fossil]] [[dinosaur]], which he named ''[[Megalosaurus]]'' in 1824.

Buckland followed the [[Gap creationism|Gap Theory]] in interpreting the biblical account of ''Genesis'' as two widely separated episodes of creation. It had emerged as a way to reconcile the scriptural account with discoveries in geology suggesting the earth was very old. Early in his career Buckland believed he had found evidence of the [[Deluge myth|biblical flood]], but later saw that the [[ice age|glaciation theory]] of [[Louis Agassiz]] gave a better explanation, and played a significant role in promoting it.

Buckland served as [[Dean of Westminster]] from 1845 until his death 1856.

==Early life==
[[File:William Buckland bust.JPG|thumb|120px|Bust of Buckland in the [[Oxford University Museum of Natural History]]]]

Buckland was born at [[Axminster]] in Devon<ref name=EB>Chisholm, 1911</ref> and, as a child, would accompany his father, the Rector of [[Templeton, Devon|Templeton]] and [[Trusham]], on his walks where interest in road improvements led to collecting fossil shells, including [[ammonite]]s, from the [[Early Jurassic]] [[Lias Group|Lias]] rocks exposed in local quarries.

He was educated first at [[Blundell's School]], Tiverton, Devon, and then at [[Winchester College]], from where he won a scholarship to [[Corpus Christi College, Oxford]], matriculating in 1801 and graduating BA in 1805.<ref>{{alox2|title=Buckland, William}}</ref> He also attended lectures of [[John Kidd (chemist)|John Kidd]] on mineralogy and chemistry, developed an interest in [[geology]], and carried out field research on [[Stratum|strata]] during his vacations.<ref name=EB/> He went on to obtain his MA degree in 1808, became a [[Fellow]] of Corpus Christi in 1809, and was ordained as a priest. He continued to make frequent geological excursions, on horseback, to various parts of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

In 1813, Buckland was appointed [[Reader (academic rank)|Reader]] in mineralogy, in succession to John Kidd, giving lively and popular lectures with increasing emphasis on geology and [[palaeontology]]. As an unofficial [[curator]] of the [[Ashmolean Museum]], he built up collections, touring Europe and coming into contact with scholars including [[Georges Cuvier]].

== Career, work and discoveries==
=== Rejection of flood geology and Kirkdale Cave ===
[[Image:Buckland hyena.jpg|thumb|right| [[William Conybeare (geologist)|William Conybeare]] drew this cartoon of Buckland poking his head into a prehistoric hyaena den in 1822 to celebrate Buckland's ground breaking analysis of the fossils found in Kirkdale Cave.<ref name="Rudwick1992_38-42">{{cite book|author=Rudwick, Martin |title=Scenes from Deep Time|year= 1992|pages=38–42|publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226731056}}</ref>]]
In 1818, Buckland was elected a fellow of the [[Royal Society]]. That year he persuaded [[the Prince Regent]] to endow an additional Readership, this time in Geology and he became the first holder of the new appointment, delivering his inaugural address on 15 May 1819. This was published in 1820 as ''Vindiciæ Geologiæ; or the Connexion of Geology with Religion explained'', both justifying the new science of geology and reconciling geological evidence with the [[Bible|biblical]] accounts of [[Creation myth|creation]] and [[Noah's Ark|Noah's Flood]].

At a time when others were coming under the opposing influence of [[James Hutton]]'s theory of [[Uniformitarianism (science)|uniformitarianism]], Buckland developed a new hypothesis that the word "beginning" in [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] meant an undefined period between the origin of the earth and the creation of its current inhabitants, during which a long series of extinctions and successive creations of new kinds of plants and animals had occurred. Thus, his [[catastrophism]] theory incorporated a version of [[Old Earth creationism]] or [[Gap creationism]]. Buckland believed in a global deluge during the time of Noah but was not a supporter of [[flood geology]] as he believed that only a small amount of the strata could have been formed in the single year occupied by the deluge.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/p82.htm |title=History of the Collapse of Flood Geology and a Young Earth |access-date=29 March 2014 |archive-date=13 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140813225507/http://www.philvaz.com/apologetics/p82.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

From his investigations of fossil bones at [[Kirkdale Cave]], in [[Yorkshire]], he concluded that the cave had actually been inhabited by [[hyena|hyaenas]] in antediluvian times, and that the fossils were the remains of these hyaenas and the animals they had eaten, rather than being remains of animals that had perished in the Flood and then carried from the tropics by the surging waters, as he and others had at first thought. In 1822 he wrote:

<blockquote>It must already appear probable, from the facts above described, particularly from the comminuted state and apparently gnawed condition of the bones, that the cave in Kirkdale was, during a long succession of years, inhabited as a den of hyaenas, and that they dragged into its recesses the other animal bodies whose remains are found mixed indiscriminately with their own: this conjecture is rendered almost certain by the discovery I made, of many small balls of the solid calcareous excrement of an animal that had fed on bones... It was at first sight recognised by the keeper of the Menagerie at Exeter Change, as resembling, in both form and appearance, the faeces of the spotted or cape hyaena, which he stated to be greedy of bones beyond all other beasts in his care.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=107680|author=Buckland, William|title= Account of an assemblage of fossil teeth and bones of elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bear, tiger, and hyaena, and sixteen other animals, discovered in a cave at Kirkdale, Yorkshire, in the year 1821: with a comparative view of five similar caverns in various parts of England, and others on the Continent.|journal= Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|year= 1822|volume=112 |pages= 171–236}}</ref></blockquote>

While criticised by some, Buckland's analysis of Kirkland Cave and other bone caves was widely seen as a model for how careful analysis could be used to reconstruct the Earth's past, and the Royal Society awarded Buckland the [[Copley Medal]] in 1822 for his paper on Kirkdale Cave.<ref name="Rudwick2005">Rudwick, Martin ''Bursting The Limits of Time: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Revolution'' (2005) pp. 622–638, 631</ref> At the presentation the society's president, [[Humphry Davy]], said:

<blockquote>by these inquiries, a distinct epoch has, as it were, been established in the history of the revolutions of our globe: a point fixed from which our researches may be pursued through the immensity of ages, and the records of animate nature, as it were, carried back to the time of the creation.<ref name="Rudwick2005"/></blockquote>

While Buckland's analysis convinced him that the bones found in Kirkdale Cave had not been washed into the cave by a global flood, he still believed the thin layer of mud that covered the remains of the hyaena den had been deposited in the subsequent 'Universal Deluge'.<ref name="Rudwick2005"/>  He developed these ideas into his great scientific work ''Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, or, Observations on the Organic Remains attesting the Action of a Universal Deluge''<ref>[https://archive.org/details/reliquidiluvian00buckgoog <!-- quote=william buckland. --> ''Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, or, Observations on the Organic Remains attesting the Action of a Universal Deluge'']</ref> which was published in 1823 and became a best seller. However, over the next decade as geology continued to progress Buckland changed his mind. In his famous Bridgewater Treatise, published in 1836, he acknowledged that the biblical account of Noah's flood could not be confirmed using geological evidence.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rudwick, Martin |title=Worlds Before Adam: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform| year=2008|page= 427}}</ref> By 1840 he was very actively promoting the view that what had been interpreted as evidence of the 'Universal Deluge' two decades earlier, and subsequently of deep submergence by a new generation of geologists such as Charles Lyell, was in fact evidence of a major glaciation.

===''Megalosaurus''===
{{Main|Megalosaurus}}
[[File:Buckland family silhouette.jpg|thumb|Buckland family silhouette]]

He continued to live in Corpus Christi College and, in 1824, he became [[president of the Geological Society of London]]. Here he announced the discovery, at [[Stonesfield]], of fossil bones of a giant [[reptile]] which he named ''[[Megalosaurus]]'' ('great lizard') and wrote the first full account of what would later be called a [[dinosaur]].

In 1825, Buckland was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=9 September 2016}}</ref> That year he resigned his college fellowship: he planned to [[Benefice#Current usage|take up the living]] of [[Stoke Charity]] in [[Hampshire]] but, before he could take up the appointment, he was made a [[Canon (priest)|Canon]] of [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]], a rich reward for academic distinction without serious administrative responsibilities.

===Marriage===

In December 1825 he married [[Mary Buckland|Mary Morland]] of [[Abingdon, Oxfordshire|Abingdon]], Oxfordshire, an accomplished illustrator and collector of [[fossil]]s. Their [[honeymoon]] was a year touring Europe, with visits to famous [[geologist]]s and geological sites. She continued to assist him in his work, as well as having nine children, five of whom survived to adulthood. His son [[Francis Trevelyan Buckland|Frank Buckland]] became a well known practical naturalist, author, and Inspector of Salmon Fisheries.

On one occasion, Mary helped him decipher footmarks found in a slab of sandstone by covering the kitchen table with paste, while he fetched their pet [[tortoise]] and confirmed his intuition, that tortoise footprints matched the fossil marks. His daughter, author Elizabeth Oke Buckland Gordon, wrote a [[biography]] of her father that included appendices of positions held by Buckland, his membership in professional societies, and an index of his publications.

===The Red Lady of Paviland===

On 18 January 1823 Buckland walked into [[Paviland Cave]] in south Wales, where he discovered a skeleton which he named the [[Red Lady of Paviland]],<ref>''A Field Guide to the English Clergy'' Butler-Gallie, F. p. 94: London, Oneworld Publications, 2018 {{ISBN|9781786074416}}</ref> as he at first supposed it to be the remains of a local prostitute.<ref>Sommer, Marianne ''Bones and ochre: the curious afterlife of the Red Lady of Paviland'' (2007) p. 1</ref> Although Buckland found the skeleton in Paviland Cave in the same strata as the bones of extinct mammals (including [[mammoth]]), Buckland shared the view of [[Georges Cuvier]] that no humans had coexisted with any extinct animals, and he attributed the skeleton's presence there to a grave having been dug in historical times, possibly by the same people who had constructed some nearby pre-Roman fortifications, into the older layers.<ref>Rudwick, Martin ''Worlds Before Adam: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform'' (2008) pp. 77–79</ref>

Carbon-data tests have since dated the [[skeleton]], now known to be male as from circa 33,000&nbsp;[[Before Present|years before present (BP)]].<ref>{{cite journal|pmc=2752538 | pmid=19706482 | doi=10.1073/pnas.0903821106 | volume=106 | issue=38 | title=Out of Africa: modern human origins special feature: isotopic evidence for the diets of European Neanderthals and early modern humans |date=September 2009 | journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. | pages=16034–9|bibcode = 2009PNAS..10616034R | last1=Richards | first1=M. P. | last2=Trinkaus | first2=E. | doi-access=free }}</ref>
It is the oldest [[anatomically modern human]] found in the United Kingdom.

===Coprolites and the Liassic food chain===
[[File:Duria Antiquior.jpg|thumb|''[[Duria Antiquior]] – A more Ancient [[Dorset]]'', 1830 watercolour by [[Henry De la Beche]], based on Buckland's account of [[Mary Anning]]'s discoveries]]

The fossil hunter [[Mary Anning]] noticed that stony objects known as "[[bezoar]] stones" were often found in the abdominal region of [[Ichthyosauria|ichthyosaur]] skeletons found in the [[Lias Group|Lias]] formation at [[Lyme Regis]]. She also noted that if such stones were broken open they often contained fossilised fish bones and scales, and sometimes bones from small [[Ichthyosauria|ichthyosaur]]s. These observations by Anning led Buckland to propose in 1829 that the stones were fossilised faeces. He coined the name [[coprolite]] for them; the name came to be the general name for all fossilised faeces.

Buckland also concluded that the spiral markings on the fossils indicated that ichthyosaurs had spiral ridges in their intestines similar to those of modern [[shark]]s, and that some of these [[coprolite]]s were black because the ichthyosaur had ingested [[ink sac]]s from [[belemnite]]s. He wrote a vivid description of the Liassic food chain based on these observations, which would inspire [[Henry De la Beche]] to paint ''[[Duria Antiquior]]'', the first pictorial representation of a scene from the distant past.<ref>Rudwick, Martin ''Worlds Before Adam: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform'' pp. 154–155.</ref> After De le Beche had a lithographic print made based on his original [[watercolour]], Buckland kept a supply of the prints on hand to circulate at his lectures.<ref>Gordon, Mrs [Elizabeth Oke] [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_2OALAAAAMAAJ ''The life and correspondence of William Buckland, D.D., F.R.S.''] (1894) pp. 116–118</ref> He also discussed other similar objects found in other formations, including the fossilised hyena dung he had found in Kirkdale Cave. He concluded:

<blockquote>In all these various formations our Coprolites form records of warfare, waged by successive generations of inhabitants of our planet on one another: the imperishable phosphate of lime, derived from their digested skeletons, has become embalmed in the substance and foundations of the everlasting hills; and the general law of Nature which bids all to eat and be eaten in their turn, is shown to have been co-extensive with animal existence on our globe; the [[Carnivora]] in each period of the world's history fulfilling their destined office, – to check excess in the progress of life, and maintain the balance of creation.<ref>Rudwick, Martin ''Worlds Before Adam: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform'' p. 155.</ref></blockquote>

Buckland had been helping and encouraging [[Roderick Murchison]] for some years, and in 1831 was able to suggest a good starting point in [[South Wales]] for Murchison's researches into the rocks beneath the secondary strata associated with the [[mesozoic|age of reptiles]]. Murchison would later name these older strata, characterised by marine [[invertebrate]] fossils, as [[Silurian]], after a tribe that had lived in that area centuries earlier.<ref>{{harvnb|Cadbury|2001|pp=192–193}}</ref> In 1832 Buckland presided over the second meeting of the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science|British Association]], which was then held at Oxford.

=== Bridgewater Treatise ===
[[File:William_Buckland GSL.jpg|thumb|Portrait by [[Richard Ansdell]]]]
Buckland was commissioned to contribute one of the set of eight ''[[Natural theology#Bridgewater Treatises|Bridgewater Treatises]]{{Broken anchor|date=2025-03-22|bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration|target_link=Natural theology#Bridgewater Treatises|reason=Anchor "Natural theology#Bridgewater Treatises" links to a specific web page: "Bridgewater Treatises". The anchor (Bridgewater Treatises) [[Special:Diff/1109937969|has been deleted]].|diff_id=1109937969}}'', "On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation". This took him almost five years' work and was published in 1836 with the title ''Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=MR4HAAAAQAAJ&dq=william+buckland&pg=PA1 Retrieved 2 August 2018.]</ref> His volume included a detailed compendium of his theories of day-age, [[gap theory]] and a form of [[progressive creationism]] where [[faunal succession]] revealed by the fossil record was explained by a series of successive [[divinity|divine]] creations that prepared the earth for humans.<ref>{{harvnb|Cadbury|2001|pp=190–196}}</ref> In the introduction he expressed the [[argument from design]] by asserting that the families and [[phylum|phyla]] of biology were "clusters of contrivance":

<blockquote>The myriads of petrified Remains which are disclosed by the researches of Geology all tend to prove that our Planet has been occupied in times preceding the Creation of the Human Race, by extinct species of Animals and Vegetables, made up, like living Organic Bodies, of 'Clusters of Contrivances,' which demonstrate the exercise of stupendous Intelligence and Power. They further show that these extinct forms of Organic Life were so closely allied, by Unity in the principles of their construction, to Classes, Orders, and Families, which make up the existing Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms, that they not only afford an argument of surpassing force, against the doctrines of the Atheist and Polytheist; but supply a chain of connected evidence, amounting to demonstration, of the continuous Being, and of many of the highest Attributes of the One Living and True God.</blockquote>

Following [[Charles Darwin]]'s return from the [[second voyage of HMS Beagle|''Beagle'' voyage]], Buckland discussed with him the [[Galapagos land iguana]]s and [[Marine iguana]]s.<ref name=Letter359>{{cite web |url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-359.html |title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Letter 359 – Darwin, C. R. to Buckland, William, (15 June 1837)|access-date=23 December 2008}}</ref> He subsequently recommended Darwin's paper on the role of [[earthworm]]s in [[Pedogenesis|soil formation]] for publication, praising it as "a new & important theory to explain Phenomena of universal occurrence on the surface of the Earth—in fact a new Geological Power", while rightly rejecting Darwin's suggestion that chalkland could have been formed in a similar way.<ref name=Letter404>{{cite web |url=http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-404.html |title=Darwin Correspondence Project – Letter 404 – Buckland, William to Geological Society of London, 9 Mar 1838 |access-date=23 December 2008 |archive-date=29 June 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090629192234/http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/darwinletters/calendar/entry-404.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Glaciation theory ===

By this time Buckland was a prominent and influential scientific celebrity and a friend of the [[Tory]] prime minister, Sir [[Robert Peel]]. In co-operation with [[Adam Sedgwick]] and [[Charles Lyell]], he prepared the report leading to the establishment of the [[Geological Survey of Great Britain]].

Having become interested in the theory of [[Louis Agassiz]], that polished and striated rocks as well as transported material, had been caused by ancient [[glacier]]s, he travelled to Switzerland, in 1838, to meet Agassiz and see for himself. He was convinced and was reminded of what he had seen in Scotland, Wales and northern England but had previously attributed to the Flood. When Agassiz came to Britain for the [[Glasgow]] meeting of the British Association, in 1840, they went on an extended tour of Scotland and found evidence there of former glaciation. In that year Buckland had become president of the Geological Society again and, despite their hostile reaction to his presentation of the theory, he was now satisfied that glaciation had been the origin of much of the surface deposits covering Britain.

In 1845 he was appointed by Sir Robert Peel to the vacant [[List of Deans of Westminster|Deanery of Westminster]]<ref>[[Daily Telegraph]] Issue no 50,404 dated 10 June 2017 p33 > "The Abbey dean who ate the heart of a king"</ref> (he succeeded [[Samuel Wilberforce]]). Soon after, he was inducted to the living of [[Islip, Oxfordshire|Islip]], near Oxford, a preferment attached to the deanery. As Dean and head of Chapter, Buckland was involved in repair and maintenance of [[Westminster Abbey]] and in preaching suitable sermons to the rural population of Islip, while continuing to lecture on geology at Oxford. In 1847, he was appointed a trustee in the [[British Museum]] and, in 1848, he was awarded the [[Wollaston Medal]] by the Geological Society of London.

== Illness and death ==
Around the end of 1850, William Buckland contracted a disorder of the neck and brain, and died of it in 1856.<ref name="Art1933">{{cite book|author=Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art|title=Report and Transactions - The Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iEsDAAAAMAAJ|year=1933|page=409}}</ref> Frank Buckland reported that an autopsy showed "the portion of the base of the skull upon which the brain rested, together with the two upper vertebrae of the neck, to be in an advanced state of caries, or decay. The irritation...was quite sufficient cause to give rise to all symptoms." Frank Buckland attributed the cause of death of both his parents to a severe accident years earlier.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gordon |first=Elizabeth Oke |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqK8AAAAIAAJ&dq=william+buckland+death&pg=RA1-PA271 |title=The Life and Correspondence of William Buckland, D.D., F.R.S.: Sometime Dean of Westminster, Twice President of the Geological Society, and First President of the British Association |date=1894 |publisher=J. Murray |language=en}}</ref>

The plot for William's grave had been reserved, but when the gravedigger set to work, it was found that an outcrop of solid [[Jurassic]] limestone lay just below ground level and explosives had to be used for excavation. This may have been a last jest by the noted geologist, reminiscent of [[Richard Whately]]'s ''Elegy intended for Professor Buckland'' written in 1820:

{{poemquote
|Where shall we our great Professor inter
That in peace may rest his bones?
If we hew him a rocky sepulchre
He'll rise and break the stones
And examine each stratum that lies around
For he's quite in his element underground
}}

{{Botanist|Buckland|Buckland, William}}

==Known eccentricities==
Buckland preferred to do his field palaeontology and geological work wearing an [[academic gown]].<ref name=ODNB>{{Harvnb|Haile|2007}}</ref> His lectures were notable for their dramatic delivery.<ref name="oumBuckland">{{Cite web |url=http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/buckland.pdf |title="Learning More... William Buckland"  Oxford University Museum |access-date=3 May 2006 |archive-date=22 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422005923/http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/buckland.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> When he lectured indoors he would bring his presentations to life by imitating the movements of the dinosaurs under discussion.<ref>Burke, Peter (18 April 2013). A Social History of Knowledge II: From the Encyclopaedia to Wikipedia: 2 (Kindle Location 2276). Wiley. Kindle Edition.</ref> Buckland's passion for scientific observation and experiment extended to his home, where he had a table inlaid with [[dinosaur]] [[coprolite]]s. The original table top is exhibited at the [[Lyme Regis Museum]].<ref>[http://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/images/stories/research/buckland.pdf "William Buckland's Coprolite Table" Lyme Regis Museum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912071656/http://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/images/stories/research/buckland.pdf |date=12 September 2015 }}</ref><ref name="bp news">[http://www.bridportnews.co.uk/news/localnews/10579424.19th_century_table_created_out_of_fossil_poo_recreated_for_descendants_of_original_owner/ Harry Hogger "19th century table created out of fossil poo recreated for descendants of original owner" ''Bridport News" 30 July 2013'']</ref>

Not only was William Buckland's home filled with specimens – animal as well as mineral, live as well as dead<ref name=":2" /> – but he claimed to have eaten his way through the animal kingdom. Reportedly according to an anecdote recounted by [[Augustus Hare]], the most distasteful animals Buckland consumed were in his opinion [[Mole (animal)|mole]] and [[bluebottle fly]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Hare |first=Augustus |author-link=Augustus Hare |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/42770/pg42770-images.html |title=The Story of My Life Vol 5 |publisher=Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. |year=1900 |pages=358 |quote=Talk of strange relics led to mention of the heart of a French king preserved at Nuneham in a silver casket. Dr. Buckland, whilst looking at it, exclaimed, ‘I have eaten many strange things, but have never eaten the heart of a king before,’ and, before any one could hinder him, he had gobbled it up, and the precious relic was lost for ever. Dr. Buckland used to say that he had eaten his way straight through the whole animal creation, and that the worst thing was a mole—that was utterly horrible. ...  Dr. Buckland afterwards told Lady Lyndhurst that there was one thing even worse than a mole, and that was a blue-bottle fly.}}</ref> Ostrich,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rev. Richard Owen, M. A. |title=The Life of Richard Owen |publisher=[[D. Appleton & Company]] |year=1894 |pages=295 |quote='22nd - To luncheon at Dean [William] Buckland's. A piece of roast ostrich, which we all tasted ; it was very much like a bit of coarse turkey'}}</ref> hedgehogs, mice, frogs and snails, were among other animals reportedly served to guests.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Bompas |first=George C. |title=The Life of Frank Buckland |publisher=[[Thomas Nelson & Sons]] |year=1885 |pages=69 |quote=Alligator was a rare delicacy, as told in the first volume of ‘ Curiosities,’ but puppies were occasionally, and mice frequently eaten. So also at the Deanery, hedgehogs, tortoise, potted ostrich, and occasionally rats, frogs, and snails, were served up for the delectation of favoured guests. ‘ Party at the Deanery,’ one guest notes ; 1 tripe for dinner ; don’t like crocodile for breakfast.’}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=15 August 1885 |title=Frank Buckland |work=[[All the Year Round]] |page= |pages=519-521}}</ref> Buckland was followed in this hobby by his son [[Francis Trevelyan Buckland|Frank]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

One story recounted by Peter Lund Simmonds in 1859 reports that Buckland served soup to his guests before claiming that it was an alligator that he had dissected earlier that day, to the guests significant discomfort. When asked if he had really served an alligator, he reportedly responded "as good a calf's head as ever wore a coronet".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Simmonds |first=Peter |title=The Curiosities of Food: Or the Dainties and Delicacies of Different Nations Obtained from the Animal Kingdom |publisher=[[Richard Bentley (publisher)|Richard Bentley]] |year=1859 |pages=191}}</ref>

According to one story, Buckland consumed, perhaps unintentionally, a portion of the mummified heart of the French King [[Louis XIV]] during a dinner at [[Nuneham House]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/william-buckland |title=William Buckland|publisher=Westminster Abbey |access-date=17 January 2016}}</ref> though the veracity of this particular story has been questioned.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2014-12-23 |title=Door 23: The Heart of a King |url=https://blog.geolsoc.org.uk/2014/12/23/the-heart-of-a-king/ |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=The Geological Society Blog |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cabanès |first=Augustin |author-link=Augustin Cabanès |title=Curious Bypaths of History: Being Medico-historical Studies and Observations |year=1898 |pages=92}}</ref> The Louis XIV heart story goes back at least as far as an 1863 book by [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]''.''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hawthorne |first=Nathaniel |title=Our Old Home: A Series of English Sketches |publisher=[[Ticknor and Fields]] |year=1863 |page=180 |chapter=Pilgrimage to Old Boston |quote=Our hospitable friend now made us drink a glass of wine, as old and genuine as the curiosities of his cabinet; and while sipping it, we ungratefully tried to excite his envy, by telling of various things, interesting to an antiquary and virtuoso, which we had seen in the course of our travels about England. We spoke, for instance, of a missal bound in solid gold and set around with jewels, but of such intrinsic value as no setting could enhance, for it was exquisitely illuminated, throughout, by the hand of Raphael himself. We mentioned a little silver case which once contained a portion of the heart of Louis XIV. nicely done up in spices, but, to the owner's horror and astonishment, Dean [William] Buckland popped the kingly morsel into his mouth, and swallowed it.}}</ref>

Charles Darwin criticised Buckland for his behaviour in his autobiography, saying that "Buckland, who though very good-humoured and good-natured, seemed to me a vulgar and almost coarse man. He was incited more by a craving for notoriety, which sometimes made him act like a buffoon, than by a love of science."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Duffin |first=Christopher J. |date=May 2006 |title=William Buckland (1784–1856) |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2451.2006.00562.x |journal=Geology Today |language=en |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=104–108 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2451.2006.00562.x |issn=0266-6979|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 

==Legacy==

[[Dorsum Buckland]], a wrinkle ridge on the [[Moon]], is named after him. Buckland Island (known today as Ani-Jima), in the [[Bonin Islands]] (Ogasawara-Jima), was named after him by Captain Beechey on 9 June 1827. In 1846, William Buckland was rector of St. Nicholas in Islip and is commemorated on a plaque in the south aisle of the church and the "East Window" was dedicated to the memory of Buckland and his wife in 1861.<ref>{{cite book |last=Buckland |first=William |date=1869 |title= Geology and mineralogy as exhibiting the power, wisdom, and goodness of God. with additions by Professor Owen, Professor Phillips [and] Robert Brown, vol. 1, fourth edition |series=The Bridgewater treatises on the power, wisdom, and goodness of God. VI |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101076808490;view=1up;seq=37 |location=London |publisher=Bell & Daldy |page=lxii }}</ref> A plaque is dedicated to him near his summer home by the Old Rectory, The Walk, Islip (10 August 2008). There is also a bust by [[Henry Weekes]] in the south aisle at [[Westminster Abbey]].<ref>'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A.R. p53: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966</ref>

In 1972, botanist Heikki Roivainen [[circumscription (taxonomy)|circumscribed]] ''[[Bucklandiella]]'', a genus of moss in the family [[Grimmiaceae]], which was named in his honour.<ref>{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen |trans-title=Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2022 | isbn=978-3-946292-41-8 | url=https://doi.org/10.3372/epolist2022|format=pdf |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2022 | s2cid=246307410 |access-date=27 January 2022}}</ref> Buckland Peaks in New Zealand's [[Paparoa Range]] was named after him.<ref>{{cite book |last = Reed |first = A. W. |authorlink = Alexander Wyclif Reed |title = Place Names of New Zealand |year = 2010 |publisher = Raupo |location = Rosedale, North Shore |isbn = 9780143204107 |editor = Peter Dowling |page = 62}}</ref>

The Iñupiat village of [[Buckland, Alaska|Buckland]] ({{Langx|ik|Nunatchiaq}}) in [[Alaska|Alaska's]] [[Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska|Northwest Arctic Borough]] takes its English name from William Buckland, being named by [[Royal Navy]] officer [[Frederick William Beechey]] in 1826.

==See also==
* [[History of palaeontology]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|28em}}

==References==
*{{citation|last=Cadbury|first=Deborah|author-link=Deborah Cadbury|title=The Dinosaur Hunters: A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World|publisher=Fourth Estate, London|year=2001|isbn=9781857029635}}
*{{citation|last=Gordon|first=Elizabeth Oke|year=1894|publisher=John Murray, London|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2OALAAAAMAAJ|title=The life and correspondence of William Buckland, D.D., F.R.S.}}
**{{cite journal|title=Review of ''The Life and Correspondence of William Buckland, D.D., F.R.S.'' by his daughter, Mrs. Gordon; ''The Life of Richard Owen'' by his grandson, the Rev. Richard Owen|journal=The Quarterly Review|volume=180|date=April 1895|pages=381–405|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044092526615;view=1up;seq=389}}
*{{cite ODNB |last=Haile |first=Neville |chapter=Buckland, William (1784–1856)|title=[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]] |edition=Online |orig-year=2004 |date=October 2007 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/3859}}
*{{citation|last=Rudwick|first=Martin J.S.|author-link=Martin J. S. Rudwick|title=Scenes from Deep Time: Early Pictorial Representations of the Prehistoric World|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|year=1992|isbn=0-226-73105-7}}
*{{citation|last=Rudwick|first=Martin J.S.|title=Worlds Before Adam: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-226-73128-5}}
*{{citation |last=Sommer |first=Marianne |title=Bones and ochre: the curious afterlife of the Red Lady of Paviland |year=2007 |page=1}}

;Attribution
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Buckland, William}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | last=McGowan | first=Christopher | title=The Dragon Seekers | publisher=Persus Publishing | year=2001 | isbn=0-7382-0282-7 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/dragonseekershow00mcgo_0 }}
* {{cite book | last=Rupke |first=Nicolaas | author-link=Nicolaas Adrianus Rupke | title=The Great Chain of History: William Buckland and the English School of Geology 1814–1850 | publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1983}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|William Buckland}}
{{Wikiquote}}
*[http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/buckland.pdf Buckland at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422005923/http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/learning/pdfs/buckland.pdf |date=22 April 2018 }}
*[http://oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/buckland.html Buckland's blue plaque in Islip]
*[http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1990/PSCF3-90Armstrong.html William Buckland in Retrospect]
*[http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/17882 ''The Life and Correspondence of William Buckland... By his daughter, Mrs. Gordon''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029110616/http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/17882 |date=29 October 2020 }}, (London : J. Murray, 1894) – digital facsimile available from [[Linda Hall Library]]
* William Buckland (1823) [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/32361 ''Reliquiæ Diluvianæ''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021130433/http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/earththeory/id/32361 |date=21 October 2020 }} (English) – digital facsimile available from [[Linda Hall Library]]. A number of high-resolution images of the maps and other illustrations from this book are available [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/search/collection/darwin/searchterm/buckland!1823/field/title!title/mode/all!all/conn/and!and/order/nosort here]{{Dead link|date=October 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}.

{{Natural history}}
{{GLS Presidents}}
{{Copley Medallists 1801-1850}}
{{Deans of Westminster}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckland, William}}
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