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CHAPTER V. 
JOHN PHILLIPS, F.R.S. 
No geologist has been more iutimately associated with Yorkshire 
Geology than the late Professor Phillips. He came to this county in 
company with his uncle, William Smith, in the year 1819, and from 
that time for the succeeding twenty years had his residence at York. 
It was principally through his efforts that the geological structure of 
the secondary rocks on the Yorkshire coast, and the mountain lime- 
stone and associated strata of the Yorkshire dales were worked out, 
and in addition to his well-known larger works on Yorkshire Geology 
and Scenery, he contributed a large number of papers to the societies 
and magazines of the day. Professor Phillips took a great interest in 
the formation of this Society, and assisted by his presence and counsel 
in all its initial stages. He frequently afterwards attended its meet- 
ings, and several of his contributions will be found printed in the 
" Proceedings." 
Fortunately, a short time before his death. Professor Phillips 
contributed an account of his early life to the Athenaeum newspaper, 
which was published on May 2nd, 1874, this presents so graphic a 
picture of the formation of his scientific tastes during the early years 
of his life, that it is ventured to reprint it in full : — 
" I was born on the happy Christmas Day, 1800, at Marden, in 
Wiltshire, the moment being noted by my father with the exactitude 
suited to a horoscope. He was the youngest son of a Welsh family 
settled for very many generations on their own property at Blaen-y- 
Ddol, in Carmarthenshire, and some other farms near it. On their 
possessions, much reduced from their ancient extent, my gTandfather 
died in the beginning of this century. My father, bom in 1769, was 
