Major James Rennell and the Rise of Modern English Geography

Abstract

“JAMES RENNELL was the greatest geographer that Great Britain has yet produced.” This, the first sentence of the preface, is the text of the biography. The authority of the President of the Royal Geographical Society, himself the leading geographer of the day in this country, may be accepted as sufficient evidence of Rennell's pre-eminence. The name would perhaps not suggest itself to one who had a less thorough knowledge of the rise of modern English geography; for until the publication of this little volume, Rennell was without any more pretentious memorial than an obituary notice or a paragraph in a biographical dictionary. Mr. Markham writes with an enthusiastic singleness of aim; intent on illustrating his theme, he has perhaps on one or two occasions failed to criticise his own conclusions very severely before accepting them. Possibly he may unconsciously have applied the method post hoc ergo propter hoc in connecting all British progress in geography during the last fifty years with a name which cannot be said to be familiar even amongst professed geographers. Indeed we believe that this happily-timed biography will make Rennell's example more fruitful in results in the next few years than it has been during the sixty-five which have elapsed since the death of the great geographer.

Major James Rennell and the Rise of Modern English Geography.

By Clements R. Markham (The Century Science Series.) (London: Cassell and Co., 1895.)