302 Eminent Living Geologists — Prof. Phillips. 



commended old school at Holt Spa, in Wiltshire. Although an 

 ardent lover of athletic sports at school, he was nevertheless an 

 incessant worker, taking the greatest delight in Latin, French, and 

 mathematics. The boys were required to write a good deal of Latin, 

 especially one Sunday theme, and much exercised in recitation. 

 John Phillips worked through Mole's Algebra, Simpson's Euclid, 

 the two first books completely, and selections from the others. Of 

 Greek he learned merely the rudiments, to be expanded in after life. 



In the year 1800, the year in which his nephew was born, William 

 Smith had constructed and coloured a map which connected the 

 rock-structure of the north of England with that of the south- 

 western districts, and delineated the Oolitic series through Eng- 

 land with considerable accuracy. When it is remembered that 

 nothing of this kind had ever before been attempted, and that 

 this was done by one who had educated himself for and was prac- 

 tising as a civil engineer and land-surveyor, the force of character 

 existing in its author will be evident, and its influences are apparent 

 in the progress of the nephew. 



After leaving school, John Phillips resided for twelve months 

 with the Kev. Benjamin Eichardson, of Farley Castle, near Bath, 

 one of the best naturalists in the West of England, and a man of 

 excellent acquirements. To his daily and hourly intercourse with 

 this gentleman, to his talk on plants, and his curiously rich old 

 library, and his sympathy with all good knowledge, Mr. Phillips 

 attributes much of his success in those pursuits in which he has 

 so greatly distinguished himself. 



From the rectory of Farley, John Phillips was transferred to his 

 uncle Smith's house, which looked out on the Thames from the 

 eastern end of Buckingham Street. There a new kind of life 

 awaited him. Mr. William Smith was a man in the exercise of a 

 lucrative and honourable profession, who had for many years given 

 every spare moment and every spare shilling to the execution of his 

 vast work, — the map of the strata of England and Wales. His 

 house was full of maps, sections, models, and collections of fossils. 

 His hourly talk was of the laws of stratification, the succession of 

 organic life, the practical value of geology, — its importance in agri- 

 culture, engineering, and commerce, — its connection with physical 

 geography, — its infliience on the occupation of different people, and 

 the distribution of different races. 



In 1815 Mr. William Smith published his large map, on a scale 

 of five miles to one inch. This remarkable work brought him into 

 notice, and he was, in consequence, largely employed in construct- 

 ing geological maps of counties and estates. In this work he was 

 now assisted by his nephew, who accompanied him on his tours and 

 whom he employed in sketching. In 1819 Mr. Smith undertook to 

 walk through Lincolnshire into Oxfordshire. " On this, as on 

 almost every journey for the last three years, Mr. Phillips was his 

 glad companion, Jiaud passibus eequis ; and, according to an established 

 custom on all such tours, he was employed in sketching parts of the 

 road and noticing on maps the geological features of the country." 



