This was the critical moment; from this event flowed allthe current of his useful life, and to the same origin may beascribed many of the peculiar habits and feelings, the con-trasted lights and shades, which diversified the character ofWilliam Smith.

Edward Webb was, like his pupil, self-taught, and veryslightly acquainted with languages and general literature,but possessed of great ingenuity and skill in mechanics,mensuration, logarithms, algebra, and fluxions. His prac-tice, as a surveyor, included many things now conceded tothe engineer, such as the determination of the forces ofwater, and planning machinery *. His instruments werecommonly invented, often made and divided by himself;peculiar pentagraphs, theodolites, scales, and even com-passes and field books, of new construction, enriched theoffice at Stow, and stimulated to thought and exertion theyoung men who were fortunate enough to he placed in it f.

“ I admired,” says the subject of this memoir, “ the talentof my master, his placid and ever unruffled temper, and hiswillingness to let me get on, for I required no teaching.”

Speedily entrusted with the management of all the ordi-nary business of a surveyor, Mr. Smith traversed in con-tinual activity the oolitic lands of Oxfordshire and Glou­ cestershire , the lias clays and red marls of Warwickshire ;visited (1788) the Salperton tunnel on the Thames andSevern Canal, and (1790) examined the soils and circum-stances connected with a “ boring for coal in the NewForest, opposite the Shoe alehouse at Plaitford.” (MS.)All the varieties of soil in so many surveys in differentdistricts were particularly noticed, and compared with the

* Among the recollections of the office, Mr. Smith used to quote thefollowing lines regarding the inventor of the slide-rule and steam-boats :—" Jonathan Hull, with his paper skull,

He tried to make a machine ;

But he, like an ass, could not bring it to pass,

And now he’s ashamed to be seen.”

The unfortunate boat was launched on the Warwickshire Avon.

t Mr. Richard C. Taylor, the eminent surveyor and geologist, now resi-dent in the United States , was one of the pupils of Edward Webb.