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end he walked, or rode, or posted, in directions quite outof the way of his business; and having thus emptied hispockets for what he deemed a public object, was forced tomake up by night-travelling the time he had lost, so as notto fail in his professional engagements. Those who deemsuch a course imprudent, can scarcely be entitled to censurethe motives on which it was founded ; his personal loss wasthe public gain ; his individual strength performed a nationalwork; and the sufferings to which this system ultimatelyconducted, were borne with more than common fortitude.

At Mr. Crook’s hospitable house, in 1800, the improve-ments effected by Mr. Smith’s processes of draining andirrigation, were inspected by that prince of farmers, ThomasWilliam Coke of Norfolk, the late venerable Earl of Lei-cester. This eminent man immediately invited Mr. Smithto Holkham, employed him in a great variety of works, andrecommended him to others ; and not only valued his abilitiesfor agricultural improvements, but entered warmly into themerit of his scientific discoveries, and conceived an interestin his welfare, which was manifested near the close of hisuseful and honoured life.

“ My journey,” says Mr. Smith, “ from Bath to Holkham,was performed on horseback, by the guidance of Cary’sone-sheet England. The same map was used in my returnacross the Fens to Peterborough, where I recognized Corn -brash ; and, lest I should not recollect the sites, extent, andintricacies of this and the rocks in the series below it, so wellknown in Somersetshire , I alighted from my horse from timeto time as I passed through Northamptonshire by BanburyLane, and sketched a section of all the ascents and descentson the road, and marked the stone-quarries, outcrops of therocks, and other strata thereon, and could not refrain fromloading my pockets with identifying fossils.”

In 1801, amidst incessant occupation and demands for hispresence in distant quarters, and even in Ireland , Mr. Smithattempted in vain to commit to paper his fast-growing gene-ralizations in what he regarded as a new science. To thishe was stimulated by that never-tiring and always judicious

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