The very rare FIRST GEOLOGICAL map of the county of Surrey by William Smith. The significance of William Smith’s geological map of England and Wales published in 1815 need not be stated here. Although of huge significance it placed Smith in debtor’s prison from which his friends rescued him in 1817. Undeterred in 1819 John Cary advertised amongst a list of works, one entitled ‘A New Geological Atlas of England and Wales (Part the First) containing Maps of Kent, Sussex, Norfolk and Wilts; showing the Variety of Strata, Collieries, Mines, & c. By W. Smith, Author of the large Geological Map of England’. No general title page to the work has ever been found and the work was never completed. Only six parts were issued, each with 4 maps except the fourth part which contained a map of Yorkshire in four sheets. The maps used were those of John Cary as published in ‘Cary’s New English Atlas’ 1809. All examples of Smith’s county maps are rare. The map is COLOURED GEOLOGICALLY and outside the boundary of the county are the names of the strata and their characteristics, each numbered according to the ‘Geological Table’. Davis stated ‘in the writers experience are among the rarest of Smith’s publications’ (Davis). He goes on to record the existence of the Surrey with the later date of 1821. A VERY RARE ITEM. Davis (1952) vol. 2, pt. 9 pp. 388-95; Eyles (1969) no. 27; Fordham (1925) p. 106; not in Rodger.