Dr. Fitton's Notes on the Histoiy of English Geology. 51 



4 me at that time ; but soon afterwards he entered into the 

 4 system with great pleasure. 



" In January 1802, at the Duke of Bedford's request, Mr. 

 4 Smith came to Woburn, to investigate the stratification of 

 4 the southern parts of this country, and the parts of Bucking- 

 4 hamshire adjoining. The letter announcing the arrival of 

 4 Mr. Smith, is dated 23rd January 1802, inviting me to join 

 4 them on the following Monday, to spend three or four days 

 4 on a geological survey, to commence near Dunstable, at the 

 4 foot of the chalk hills, and thence to Wendover, Aylesbury, 

 • Quainton, Winslow, Leighton, &c. In this survey we loaded 

 4 ourselves with fossils and specimens ; — and thus commenced 

 4 our geological experience under the guidance of the founder 

 4 of the system. 



44 More investigations of this nature would have followed, 

 4 but for the death of the Duke of Bedford, under whose kind 

 4 patronage, and at whose expense, the first survey was 

 4 made." 



The picture given in the beginning of these passages is 

 very striking. Those who are acquainted with the imperfect 

 diffusion of geological knowledge in England even at the pre- 

 sent day, can imagine what it must have been to deliver a 

 lecture on a new geological system, after dinner, to an assem- 

 bly of English farmers at an agricultural meeting, more than 

 thirty years ago; nor can they be surprised at the result de- 

 scribed by Mr. Bevan. Yet even there this zealous devotion 

 and enthusiasm were not without reward : for Smith then made 

 one convert of such value as to compensate for the inattention 

 of many of his reluctant hearers. 



Mr. Farey was another pupil who became known to Mr. 

 Smith about the same time: and in a letter to Sir Joseph 

 Banks, giving an account of the geological excursions men- 

 tioned by Mr. Bevan, Mr. Farey states, that he had then 

 seen in Smith's possession a coloured geological map, of very 

 large size, (about 7|- feet by 5 feet,) on which the outcrop of 

 the several strata was delineated ; and that Smith had given 

 him information of peculiar value on the distinctions between 

 the superficial accumulations of clay, loam, and gravel, and 

 the same substances in the form of regular strata. 



In May 1 804, he attended a meeting of the Board of Agri- 

 culture in London, for the purpose of exhibiting his maps and 

 sections, and of explaining his views, and was requested by the 

 Board to prepare a specific statement of his researches. At 

 the Woburn sheep-shearing ofthe same year, apaper was drawn 

 up by Sir Joseph Banks, and a sum of money raised, by sub- 

 scription from the Duke of Bedford and other eminent and 



H2 



