When he grew older, William Smith taught himself surveying from books he bought with his small savings, and at the age of eighteen he was apprenticed to a surveyor of the local parish.

当威廉·史密斯长大一些，他用自己的一点积蓄买了一些书，自学测量学，并且他18岁时在当地教区做了一名测量师的学徒。