British pure mathematicians in the second half of the nineteenth century were mostly ignorant of the advances being made on the Continent, as shown by the career of James Whitbread Lee Glaisher, who was one of the best-known mathematicians of the age, was editor of two of Britain's mathematical journals, and was an inspiring lecturer. Yet the traditional research methods that he had been taught at Cambridge did not allow him to keep abreast of modern mathematics. He advocated the seminar research system that was being developed in Germany, but this was contrary to the British tradition in which a mathematician was a lone worker. Eventually he became disillusioned, and pottery became his principal interest. However, Henry Smith at Oxford was not subject to the traditions of Cambridge; consequently he became the British mathematician most in tune with Continental developments. These, and other examples, show that the Cambridge effect on British mathematics was pernicious, and it was necessary for a spirit of cooperation to replace the veneration of the pure mathematician as hero. At the outset of the new century this requirement was met, with two famous mathematical partnerships.