In the early nineteenth century, the gifted stratigrapher and amateur geologist William Phillips (1773-1828) gave several lectures to interested young people in Tottenham on the subject of geology. These lectures were later collected into a book, which Phillips expanded in later versions. This reached its peak in 1822 when the clergyman William Daniel Conybeare (1787-1857) collaborated with Phillips to produce this rigorous and improved assessment of the geological composition of England and Wales. Although no second volume was ever published, the book had a tremendous impact on geologists...