Worthington George Smith

D.A. Roe: Worthington George Smith WORTHINGTON GEORGE SMITH (1835–1917) Derek A. Roe Oxford University, UK. Contact email: [email protected] ___________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Worthington Smith was an important member of the group of archaeologists whose work established Palaeolithic Archaeology as a discipline in Britain. He observed, meticulously recorded and published traces of some of the best Acheulian sites ever to come to light in England. While his overview of the Palaeolithic period has inevitably not stood the test of time, his publications remain of great value for the factual information they contain, and for his fine illustrations. Most of his artefact collections also survive, well-documented in spite of the loss of many of his written notes, and these too are important. Full reference: Roe, D.A. 2009. Worthington George Smith (1835–1917). In R. Hosfield, F. Wenban-Smith & M. Pope (eds.) Great Prehistorians: 150 Years of Palaeolithic Research, 1859–2009 (Special Volume 30 of Lithics: The Journal of the Lithic Studies Society): 85–95. Lithic Studies Society, London. Keywords: WG Smith, Palaeolithic Archaeology in the 19th century, Caddington INTRODUCTION ground to a halt. Working on the card index indeed proved an excellent starting point, I first came across the work of Worthington even if it eventually took me over five years Smith in 1962, soon after I began doctoral to complete it and produce the CBA‘s British research at Cambridge University on the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Gazetteer British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, with (Roe 1968) by contacting and actually particular reference to handaxes. I was visiting museums myself. However, it was utterly unprepared for the encounter: there from cards originally sent in to Charles had been little active research interest in the McBurney by James Dyer, and filed under British Lower Palaeolithic for many years, Bedfordshire, that I first became aware of and there was no recent text book, which Worthington Smith, the site of Caddington might have mentioned him. My supervisor, and Smith‘s remarkable book Man the Charles McBurney, was more than happy to Primeval Savage (W.G. Smith 1894). hand over to me ‗as a useful starting point — Charles McBurney, famously absent- completing it ought to take you about three minded, may or may not have looked at the weeks‘, a file of cards collected by the CBA cards that were returned to him, but, Council for British Archaeology, which had when I asked him, he denied ever having decided to carry out period surveys for heard of Smith‘s work, and was much Britain, based on local records of sites and impressed, for at least a few minutes, with artefact collections held by museums. what I told him. It was not long before I had McBurney had been talked into taking on the found myself (for less than a pound) a copy role of secretary, a duty for which he had of Smith‘s book, which I still have. little time to spare, and, after some patchy initial local enthusiasm and the return of The early 1960s were pre-computer days for about 300 cards, the project had pretty well archaeological research students: pre- 85 Great Prehistorians: 150 Years of Palaeolithic Research, 1859–2009 (Lithics 30) internet, pretty well pre-information- Smith‘s life and achievements for more than technology of any effective kind. One can 50 years, and has written the two most tell present-day research students that, and substantial biographical accounts (Dyer they may listen politely, but I doubt that they 1959, 1978). He has also very kindly can really have any conception of either the provided the photograph of Worthington constraints or the wonderful benefits of Smith, which appears as Figure 1 and research that depends on working through commented on a draft of this text. the whole body of the literature and making notes by hand, in libraries open only for limited hours on weekdays, checking, for WORTHINGTON GEORGE SMITH: example, through long runs of the endless HIS LIFE AND CAREER national and local journals, and then going to study at first hand the actual collections of Smith was born in 1835 (a date which makes material. The fact is that, in the early 1960s, him just pre-Victorian) in Shoreditch, then a we were by necessity not very far removed residential area on the northern edge of from the scholarly working methods of Sir London, with open country beyond. John Evans or of Worthington Smith ‗Worthington‘ was actually his mother himself, so perhaps we were meeting such Sarah‘s maiden surname, and ‗George‘ was figures on their own ground, even if we had his father‘s first name. It is important to note the advantage of a much broader overview of that his father was a Hertfordshire man, born the Palaeolithic and the Pleistocene. I in 1804 in Gaddesden Row in the north of wonder, however, whether general that county, near the border with awareness of Worthington Smith is much Bedfordshire; he moved to London, after higher now than it was then, and how many marrying, to take up a Civil Service post, but of today‘s younger researchers have read his made frequent visits to various relatives book — I mean actually read it, as opposed living, and in some cases farming, in the to listing it in a bibliography because Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire villages that someone else had referred to it. There seems were later to become the scene of little current appetite for consulting books Worthington Smith‘s most important more than a few years old, and that is a archaeological discoveries. That area was shame, because some of the 19th century thus one with which the latter was closely publications contain the only first hand familiar from childhood, and where he accounts of important sites that no longer always felt at home. exist. Perhaps some may actually find the title Man the Primeval Savage offensive — For altogether fuller details of Worthington something that would never have occurred to Smith‘s life, the reader is referred to James its author, whose imaginative reconstructions Dyer‘s excellent account (1978). My purpose of life in Lower Palaeolithic times envisaged here is simply to pick out some of the events roles of equal importance for men and and circumstances which seem likely to have women, even in the matter of stone tool shaped his approach to archaeology, and manufacture: his sketches show women defined both its strengths and weaknesses; flaking stone (1894: 45–59, 263–4, Figs. the same factors also need to be borne in 196–7, and Figure 4 in this chapter). Perhaps mind when we come to compare him with the short account offered here will encourage his peers, some of whom are the subjects of a few to look more closely at Worthington other chapters in this volume. If we start Smith‘s work and publications. with the matter of education, the family was not wealthy and Smith‘s schooling was I would like to end this brief introduction unpretentious; there never seems to have with a grateful acknowledgement of the been any question of his going to University. work of James Dyer, who has been studying He spent little time studying languages, and 86 D.A. Roe: Worthington George Smith evidently gained no thirst for foreign travel. became a route to two important new In spite of those things, he had (and retained interests, in plant and crop diseases and in throughout his life) the natural scholar‘s mycology, and he became and remained a willingness to devote himself with great respected and widely consulted authority on energy to finding out about those subjects both, writing a number of books and papers, which particularly interested him — in his and becoming a member of various leading case, in early life, these included history, national societies. antiquities, architecture and various aspects of natural history. He also possessed from Those who know Worthington Smith only as the start a real talent for drawing. All these an archaeologist may be surprised to interests came together in his choice of discover how well known he also is to architecture as a career after leaving school; botanists and mycologists, even though one should remember that the styles of knowledge in both fields has moved on since architecture in England in the mid 19th his days. This is not the place to go further century were essentially backward looking, into this side of Smith‘s career, but a number as the name ‗Gothic Revival‘ implies, and of points are relevant, notably that he spent the interest in Gothic was itself a reaction to much time working at, and for, the British strong continuing classical influences. Museum of Natural History; this, and his Decorative architectural detail often membership of the national societies, incorporated motifs taken from the world of brought him into contact with people plant life, demanding from its designer quite interested in Natural History generally, some detailed botanical knowledge. Smith of them major figures in the world of excelled in drawing plants; he was also sent scholarship, at a particularly exciting time, by his employers to the British Museum to just as the work of Charles Darwin and draw classical antiquities, particularly Alfred Russell Wallace, with all its sculpture, and thus early on absorbed some implications, was coming to the notice of the of the atmosphere of the place. He also scientific world. Smith was also becoming added the skills of wood-block engraving to familiar with the task of communicating his those of drawing. work to others, through his publications and through occasional lectures which he was He showed real talent as an architectural invited to give.

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