Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Buckman, James
BUCKMAN, James, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.S.A., son of Mr. John Buckman, born at Cheltenham in 1816, and educated at a private school, was appointed Curator and Resident Professor at the Birmingham Philosophical Institution in 1846, and from 1848 to 1863 held the post of Professor of Geology and Botany at the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester. At an early age he was articled to a surgeon-apothecary at Cheltenham, and afterwards studied chemistry, botany, and geology in London. He was for many years Hon. Secretary and Lecturer at the Cheltenham Philosophical Institution, and he was presented with a handsome testimonial on leaving for Birmingham in 1846. He has since received two valuable testimonials, one from the inhabitants of Cirencester and his scientific friends, and the other from his pupils on resigning his appointment at the Royal Agricultural College. Professor Buckman is the author of "The Pittville Spa, Cheltenham: Analysis of its Waters, &c.;" "Chart of the Cotteswold Hills;" "Our Triangle: Letters on the Geology, Botany, and Archæology of the Neighbourhood of Cheltenham," 1842; "The Flora of the Cotteswolds," 1844; "The Geology of the Cotteswolds," 1845; "The Ancient Straits of Malvern; or, an Account of the former Marine Conditions which separated England from Wales;" "The Remains of Roman Art," 1850; "History of British Grasses," 1858; and "Science and Practice in Farm Cultivation," 1863. He has contributed several papers to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and to the Geological Society; many published notes on Geology, Zoology, and Botany, and several Prize Essays in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society; papers in the Bath and West of England Society's Journal; articles in Morton's "Cyclopædia of Agriculture," and articles (nearly 300) in the Agricultural Gazette and other journals. Mr. Buckman has enriched Cirencester with a fine museum of Roman antiquities, mostly collected by himself, and with a large collection of fossils. The former are deposited in the Corinium Museum and the latter at the Royal Agricultural College. Mr. Buckman occupies a large farm in Dorsetshire, which is conducted upon model principles, and with such success that he has already received cups for his root-cultivation, and other prizes. For the last few years he has devoted himself to the study and illustration of some of the more important agricultural questions which continually arise, and there are few of the higher agricultural journals that have not articles from his pen.