93 
Historical and Type Collections. 
This Collection was formed by Gnstavus Brainier, F.R.S., 
F.S.A., in the earlier half of the last century, and an account of 
the same, with eight quarto plates, was published in 1706, 
entitled, “ Fossilia Hantoniensia Collecta, et in Musseo Britan- 
nico deposita.” The descriptions of the species given in t lie 
work were written by Dr. Solander, one of the officers of the 
British Museum. They were “ collected in the County of 
Hampshire, out of the cliffs by the sea coast between Christ- 
church and Lymington, but more especially about the cliffs by 
the village of Hordwell, nearly midway betwixt the two former 
places ” (op. cit., p. Ill), 
Only a small number out of the original 120 figured 
specimens are now capable of being identified, the rest having 
become, in the course of 122 years, commingled with the far 
more numerous and later Eocene Tertiary acquisitions, and so 
have lost their connection with this admirable Memoir. The 
engravings of the shells are equal to any modern published work 
descriptive of the fossils of the Eocene formation ; but the 
names given by Dr. Solander are in many instances incorrect, 
according to our present knowledge of the genera of Mollusca. 
The next series to which attention is directed, is the 
Collection of William Smith, LL.D. This was commenced 
about the year 1787, and purchased by the Trustees in 1816, a 
supplemental Collection being added by Dr. Smith in 1818. 
It is remarkable as the first attempt made to identify the 
various strata forming the solid crust of England and Wales by 
means of their fossil remains. There bad been other and earlier 
Collections of fossils, but to William Smith is due the credit of 
being the first to show that each bed of Chalk or Sandstone, 
Limestone or Clay, is marked by its own special organisms and 
that these can be relied upon as characteristic of such stratum, 
wherever it is met w'itb, over very wide areas of country. 
The fossils contained in this Cabinet were gathered together 
by William Smith in his journeys over all parts of England 
during thirty years, whilst occupied in his business as a Land 
Surveyor and Engineer, and were used to illustrate his works, 
“ Strata Identified by Organized Fossils,” with coloured plates 
quarto (1816; four parts only published); and his “ Strati- 
g rap hi cal System of Organized Fossils” (quarto, 1817). 
A coloured copy of his large Map, the first Geological 
Map of England and Wales, with a part of Scotland, commenced 
in 1812 and published in 1815 — size 8 feet 9 inches by 6 feet 
2 inches, engraved by John Cary — is exhibited on the right hand 
side of this Gallery, near the entrance. It is well worthy of 
careful inspection. 
William Smith was born at Churchill, a village of Oxford- 
shire, in 1769 ; he was the son of a small farmer and mechanic, 
but his father died when he was only eight years old, leaving 
Brand er 
Collection, 
1766. 
Table-case, 
No. 16. 
Dr. ‘William 
Smith’s 
Collection, 
1816-18. 
Centre-case, 
East Wall. 
William 
Smith’s 
Map, 1815. 
