50 Dr. Fitton's Notes on the History of English Geology. 



sion ot such documents, in a state fit for their appearance, as 

 to embrace all the leading facts, and a great part of the detail 

 of what has since been made known on the stratification of 

 England. Had he published, as he could have done, at this 

 period, he would have stood alone, and anticipated all com- 

 petition by several years ; and his work would have given an 

 impulse to the subject, the effect of which it is now impossible 

 to appreciate. But it is equally clear that, long before the map 

 and sections did issue from the press, quite enough had been 

 done by Mr. Smith himself, and by many of those to whom 

 he communicated his observations, to diffuse a knowledge of 

 his principles, so widely and effectually, as nearly to amount 

 to a publication of them in England. 



Though defeated in his purpose of making his discoveries 

 public, in the best and least disputable form, by the unfore- 

 seen and critical event above mentioned, he does not seem 

 to have been dispirited, or to have changed his habit of im- 

 parting his knowledge without reserve. He continued to ex- 

 hibit his maps, sections and specimens as usual, and to explain 

 his views to all who were desirous of becoming acquainted 

 with them. Full of his subject, overflowing with information 

 long familiar to his own mind, but in the then existing state of 

 geology quite new to his contemporaries, he could not help, in 

 fact, diffusing what he knew : and in some instances about this 

 period he was very fortunate in these communications. 



" I think (Mr. Bevan mentions, in a letter to the writer of 

 this paper) * the first of my acquaintance with Mr. Smith was 

 4 in June 1801, at the sheep-shearing of the late Duke of Bed- 

 « ford at Woburn yVbbey. 



" After dinner I observed a person at the table exhibiting 



* some papers with sketches of the stratification of England. 

 « I did not observe any of the company appear to notice with 

 « much interest or attention the sections, or attend to Mr. 

 « Smith's theory; and he was on the point of folding up his 



* papers, with little hopes of engaging the attention of any of 

 « the company, when I requested him to allow me to examine 

 1 them, which he seemed pleased to do. From that time our 

 t acquaintance has continued to the present time. 



" In the course of about half an hour, I learned from him 

 4 the outlines of his discovery : — pretty nearly equal to all that 

 ' has been since made known, except as to detail. 



" In the evening of that day I called at Woburn, on my 



* friend Farey ; and explained to him the theory of Smith, 



* and assured him that I had compared it with many facts 



* within my own knowledge in the neighbourhood, and found 

 ' it fully to agree with them. Mr. F. did not coincide with 



