Unlike today, for most of the 19th century Oxford and Cambridge Universities taught no science and conducted no scientific research. Yet during this period, these two British institutions graduated students who would include some of history's most influential scientists. We will see what it was like to become and work as a British scientist in the first half of the 1800s. As examples, we will look at the development and work of three scientists of the period - geologist Lyell, physicist Maxwell, and biologist Darwin.