WILLIAM SMITH. 263 



the geological principles which this collection was 

 intended to illustrate ; but this project came to 

 nothing. 



In the winter of 1818-19, Mr. Smith revisited, 

 after an absence of ten years, his native village, re- 

 examined the unforgotten localities where in child- 

 hood his " pundibs " and " poundstones " were 

 gathered, and collected " marlstone " fossils from an 

 excavation at Churchill Mill, nearly at the same 

 points where he had noticed them in 1787. In 

 one whose life had been one long wandering, and 

 who had earned for himself an immortal name, 

 this return to the haunts of his childhood and the 

 simplicity of village occupations, must have excited 

 many interesting reflections. He had sold his patri- 

 mony, and what had been the modest dwelling of 

 his ancestors for two hundred years ; he had dis- 

 bursed in travelling for what he deemed a public 

 object all that he had earned ; while one of his two 

 brothers, quietly prosecuting trade in his native 

 village, had grown a rich and prosperous man. 



In the autumn of 18 19 Mr. Smith gave up his 

 house in London, after fifteen years' occupation, 

 and was compelled to submit to the sale of his 

 furniture, collections, and books, preserving in fact, 

 only his papers, maps, sections and other drawings, 

 through the kindness of a most faithful friend. 

 While this happened, he was in Yorkshire busily 

 engaged, apparently oblivious, perhaps sternly re- 

 gardless, of what seemed to others an insupportable 

 misfortune. He deemed it an inevitable corollary 



