Verses about Buckland

Abstract

IN view of the interest recently displayed in an “Elegy, intended for Professor Buckland“ (NATURE, Oct. 8, p. 673, and Oct. 22, p. 758), it may be appropriate to record Buckland's own comment upon it in a letter which he wrote to Miss Jane Talbot at Penrice Castle in Gower on December 11, 1820. Buckland had just returned from a long Continental trip which, he said, had been “less adventurous in the line of imprisonments and banditti than the last, but had not been lacking in curious incidents”. He then went on: “In contemplation of the possibility of my remaining underground upon the Continent for ever, I found upon my return that Mr. Whateley of Oriel had composed for me an elegy which I am happy to have it in my power to forward you a copy ”. The copy which follows, in his own handwriting, shows that the printed versions in Mrs. Gordon's “Life and Correspondence of William Buckland”, and in NATURE of October 8, contain a few copyists' errors.