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expended nearly all the savings of his life, a heavy reverse of 
fortune awaited him. He had purchased a small property near 
Bath, which he had greatly improved and had laid down a railway 
to bring the Freestone of Combe Down to the Coal Canal, opened 
new quarries, and fitted up machinery for cutting and shaping the 
stone for buildings. At first the project looked well, but it failed 
by reason of the unexpected deficiency of the stone on whose 
good quality the whole success depended. A compulsory sale 
followed leaving a load of debt to be discharged. 
In order to meet these difficulties he determined to sell his 
beloved Geological Collection which he had so much prized, and 
in January, 1816, it was transferred to the Trustees of the British 
Museum ; a Supplemental Collection being added two years later 
(1818). 
In 1817 a part of a descriptive catalogue of the Collection sent 
to the British Museum was published under the title of 
“ Stratigraphical System of Organised Fossils,” also another work 
published in parts, entitled “Strata Identified by Organized 
Fossils,” consisting of numerous figures of fossils engraved by 
Sowerby, and printed on paper to correspond in some degree with 
the natural hue of the strata. But these works, like his map, were 
too costly to yield any profit to the author after paying their first 
expenses of production. In 1819 Mr. Smith gave up his house in 
London, and sold off all his furniture, collections and books, and 
for the next seven years he became a wanderer in the North of 
England, rarely visiting London save on professional engagements. 
During this period he spent much of his time in making detailed 
surveys for a series of County Maps, published by Carey, and 
coloured upon the same system as the Great Map, but going into 
greater minuteness of detail. These extended over 21 English 
Counties, with a four-sheet Map of Yorkshire. During this period 
he was constantly accompanied by his nephew, John Phillips, 
afterwards the successor in the Chair of Geology of the famous 
Professor Buckland, in the University of Oxford. 
