LUTTEELL
LYELL
a natural son of Earl Carhampton). When
he returned he was conspicuous in the
most brilliant London circles, and a
frequent guest at Holland House. Luttrell
wrote little a few small volumes of verse
and prose but was one of the wittiest
conversationalists of the day. He was,
says Greville, " one of the most accom
plished men of his time," an " honourable
and high-minded gentleman," and " a
sceptic in religion " (Memoirs, i, 9). D,
Dec. 19, 1851.
LUTTRELL, Hugh Courtney Courte- nay Fownes, politician. B. Feb. 10, 1857. Ed. Cheltenham College. After a few years as Captain of the Eifle Brigade, he became A.D.C. to Lord Cowper, and later to Lord Spencer, Viceroys of Ireland. Afterwards he was secretary to General Sir John Adye, Governor of Gibraltar. He represented Tavistock in Parliament 1892-1900 and 1906-1910, and took a generous part in promoting the Spurious Sports Bill. An obituary notice in the Bere Ferrers Parish Magazine candidly admitted that he " was a professed Free thinker " and a man of very high character. D. 1918.
LYALL, The Right Honourable Sir Alfred Comyn, K.C.B., G.C.I.E., D.C.L., LL.D., P.C., statesman. B. Jan.4,1835. Ed. Eton and Haileybury College. He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1856 and fought during the Mutiny. In 1865 he was appointed Commissioner of Nagpur, and in 1867 of West Berar. Six years later Lyall was promoted to the post of Home Secretary to the Government of India, and from 1881 to 1887 he was Governor of the North West Provinces. He retired in 1887 from an administration which had won high praise, and he entered the India Council. In 1902 he was admitted to the Privy Council. Sir Alfred was not without distinction as a writer. The first series of his Asiatic Studies appeared in 1882, and in 1889 he issued a volume of poems (Verses Written in India], including one
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boldly entitled " Theology in Extremis,"
which expresses his Eationalism. He
wrote also lives of Warren Hastings and
the Marquis of Dufferin. In 1891 he gave
the Eede Lecture at Cambridge, in 1908
the Ford Lecture at Oxford, and in 1902
he became a Fellow of the British Academy.
Mr. Clodd (Memories, pp. 101-104) shows
that he was consistently Agnostic. " I
don t know," he used to say, when religion
was discussed, " but then who does ? "
D. Apr. 10, 1911.
LYELL, Sir Charles, M.A., F.E.S., LL.D., geologist. B. Nov. 14, 1797. Ed. private schools and Oxford (Exeter College). Lyell entered at once upon the study of geology, and in 1819 joined the Geological and the Linnaean Societies. In 1823 he was appointed secretary of the Geological Society. His Principles of Geology (3 vols., 1830-33) swept the old catastrophic theory (which had been used in defence of Genesis] out of geology and prepared the way for evolution in biology. In 1831 he was appointed professor of geology at King s College, but he gave few lectures there. His Elements of Geology appeared in 1838. He was knighted in 1848, and created a baronet in 1864. Lyell strongly supported Darwin when the Origin of Species appeared, and in 1863 he again prepared the way for advance by proving the great antiquity of man on earth (The Antiquity of Man). He received the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society in 1867, and was corresponding member of the Institute of France. In the earlier part of his life Lyell was a Theist, but by 1873 he had, apparently, discarded the idea of immortality and all Christian doctrines. Writing to Miss F. P. Cobbe (who else where makes the strange statement that he believed firmly in immortality) in that year, he said that the supposed proofs of a future life were interesting, " but they confirm my opinion that we are so much out of our depth when we attempt to treat of this subject that we gain little but doubt in such speculations " (Life, Letters, and
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