28 Conversazione. 
Paley has used—the hand of a beneficent and wise designing Pro- 
vidence, acting from the first. 
Geology has a special claim to the attention of Wiltshiremen. I 
speak within hearing of some who may easily contradict me; but 
without fear of any such interruption I say, that in no part of 
England did the science receive an earlier or stronger impulse than 
in this very neighbourhood. Your own neighbourhood supplied 
the men who first detected its true principles. The district between 
Warminster, Bath, and Pewsey, included the residences of three 
men, whose names have been mentioned in connection with this 
particular point at metropolitan associations; and who should not 
be forgotten by a Society formed on the very spot near which they 
lived. Those three men were the late Mr. Wm. Smith, engineer 
of the Kennet and Avon Canal; the Rev. Mr. Richardson, Rector 
of Farleigh; and the Rev. Mr. Townsend, of Pewsey. To their 
industry and power of original observation, more especially to those 
of Mr. Smith, we owe the first table of regular stratification, and 
the first geological map of England. Stratification, 7.e., the succes- 
sion of the different layers of rock and earth, in a certain uniform 
order, is one of the great principles of Geology : and it was arrived 
at in the right way,—by experiment. It is the foundation on 
which a great deal has no doubt since been laid by others, but that 
was the foundation, and those were the men who laid it. 
Their observations and experiments were carried on very much 
in the district I have described; nor could you easily find a better 
for the purpose. The reason is this:—The different layers or coats 
of which the earth is formed, and which follow one another like the 
leaves of a book, do not lie exactly flat one upon the other, as flat 
as when the book lies on the table, but they lie edgewise ; so that 
the edges, first of one, and then of another, appear in succession 
upon the surface of the earth. It is over these that we travel when we 
pass from chalk to green sand, green sand to freestone, and so on. 
They have a considerable breadth, sometimes extending for many 
miles. Now it so happens that in this part of England they are 
narrower than elsewhere, and consequently they approach nearer to 
one another—something like the ends of the leaves of a lady’s fan. 
You have therefore more of them brought together within easy 
reach. Within ten or twelve miles north-east or south-west of 
Bradford, you may see almost every variety of the fossil-bearing 
strata of England. In Somersetshire the varieties of rock are still 
greater; and I have often heard Dr. Buckland say that he knew no 
better school for beginners in Geology than that county. 
But we must not meddle with Somerset, for they have a “ Natural 
History and Archeological Society” of their own; who will be 
jealous if we poach upon their manor. However we do not covet it, 
for there is plenty of game at home. In proof of this—that is, to 
show the richness of fossiliferous Wiltshire—I cannot here forbear 
