Charles Lyell


1767 - 1849

Botanist and translator of Dante. Born on the family estate of Kinnordy in Angus, which his father had bought having made his fortune at sea, Lyell was educated in London, the University of St. Andrews and Cambridge. He began practising law, but gave this up when he inherited Kinnordy from his father in 1796. He gained a reputation as a botanist, who was to have the moss Lyellia was named after him. He is also remembered as the translator of Dante's Vita Nuova and the Convito. Lyell was the father of noted geologist Sir Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875). He died at Kinnordy.


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