Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, Kt, FRS (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a British lawyer, geologist, and proponent of uniformitarianism. He was the foremost geologist of his day, and an influence on the young Charles Darwin.
Charles Lyell was born in Scotland about 15 miles north of Dundee in Kinnordy, near Kirriemuir in Forfarshire (now in Angus). He was the eldest of ten children. Lyell's father, also named Charles, was a lawyer and b...
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Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, Kt, FRS (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a British lawyer, geologist, and proponent of uniformitarianism. He was the foremost geologist of his day, and an influence on the young Charles Darwin.
Charles Lyell was born in Scotland about 15 miles north of Dundee in Kinnordy, near Kirriemuir in Forfarshire (now in Angus). He was the eldest of ten children. Lyell's father, also named Charles, was a lawyer and botanist of minor repute: it was he who first exposed his son to the study of nature.
The house of his birth is located in the north-west of the Central Lowlands in the valley of the Highland Boundary Fault, one of the great features of Scottish geology. Round the house, in the rift valley, is farmland, but within a short distance to the north-west, on the other side of the fault, are the Grampian Mountains in the Highlands. Charles would have seen this striking view from his house as a child. He was also fortunate that his family's second home...
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