Unique SURVEYING manuscript by TRAFALGAR veteran, 1815

** Unique manuscript work by Trafalgar veteran - with illustrated folding town view **

"Surveying of Land"
by
Humphrey Senhouse

* * See below for more pictures * *

 DETAILS: Manuscript, dated 1815. Contemporary quarter leather, with marbled boards. Unpaginated, 325pp in total. Illustrated with mathematical figures, diagrams and 1 folding hand-coloured (and drawn) plate. Small 4to (larger sized book). This is quite a heavy item weighing over 1kg with packaging.

CONDITION: Very Good to Good (see table below for details). Front board and endpaper detached. Rubbing and edgewear to boards and spine. Rear hinge cracked, board still okay. Foxing to endpapers and title page, and scattered light foxing and browning to most other pages. All text and figures still clear and readable, folding plate in nice condition. *Photo(s) given of actual book.

CONTENTS: An interesting curio, this volume is a (presumably unpublished) original manuscript on various aspects of surveying. The volume was written by Sir Humphrey Fleming Senhouse (1781-1841), who has signed his name in pencil on the front enpaper. Senhouse ended his days in the Royal Navy as a Post Captain, and served as one of Admiral Nelson's officers at Trafalgar.

The work is divided into parts - 'Surveying by Chain', 'Division of Land', 'The Use of the Theodolite in Surveying', 'The Use of the Cross Staff in Surveying', 'Reduction of Land' - and includes sections on measuring hay, marl pits, gauging casks, and numerous other calculations, all laid out in Senhouse's attractive handwriting. Other chapters include: 'To Survey a City or Great Town', 'To Survey High Roads', 'Miscellaneous Questions on Gauging', etc. Each surveying problem posed by Senhouse is answered in the form of intricate diagrams and calculations.

The final chapter, 'A Collection of Questions', includes numerous miscellaneous surveying conundrums and their solutions, such as: "There are two columns in the ruins of Persepolis left standing upright: the one is 64 feet above the plain, the other 50: in a straight line between these stands an ancient small statue, the head of which is 97 feet from the summit of the higher, and 86 feet from the top of the lower column, the base of which measures just 76 feet to the centre of the figure's base. Required the distance between the tops of the two columns", and, "An engineer wanted to know the breadth of a river (over which the general intended to pass the whole army) in order to determine how many pontoons of 5 feet broad and 6 feet asunder he should have occasion for...", and, " Two porters agree to drink of a quart of strong beer between them, at two pulls, or a draught each; now, the first having given it a black eye, as it is called, or drunk till the surface of the liqor touched the opposite edge of the bottom, gave the remaining part of it to the other: what was the difference of their shares...?".

Other questions are presented in the form of charming verse, presumably Senhouse's own, such as: "One evening as I walked to take the air, I met a damsel beautiful and fair, Her matchless charms did fix my roving heart, Which, till that moment, scorn'd love's proudest heart. Unto this fair I did myself address, With all the love that lovers can express. Then straight unto her father's house we went, And in love's stories all the time we spent. A curious garden joined thereunto, And all that was lovely was i'th'same there grew. The silvers streams, and pleasant walks so nice, Made it appear like a paradise. Amidst the garden she a knot would place, The better still her garden for to grace. the content of it should exact agree, To be in feet one hundred sixty three...etc."

And another, "As visiting a friend the other day, Tho' unprepar'd I then must needs survey, A piece of land exact triangular...etc.", And again, "Within my garden I've a pond that's round, Whose surface equal to 5028 4/7 square feet is found. In the Midst of which a pole stands just upright, Above the plain, one hundred feet in height...etc."

All text, figures and diagrams are all in pen, and there is one folding hand drawn and hand coloured manuscript plate pertaining to 'Surveying High Roads,' which contains some nice little sketches of buildings. The chapter 'To Measure Hay' includes four accomplished pen drawings of hay stacks.

The spine simply carries the gilt title 'Surveying', and the number '3', so presumably this volume was once part of a larger set of (related?) manuscript works by Senhouse.

The front board and front endpaper are detached (the front endpaper is signed in pencil by Senhouse). Aside from some scattered light foxing and sunning, the volume is internally in nice condition. A unique and collectable volume!

[Senhouse came from good surveying stock, being the the son of William Senhouse, Surveyor-General of Barbados. 

He also had an interesting career in the Navy. He was a lieutenant aboard HMS Conqueror at the Battle of Trafalgar. Conqueror was 5th in line and helped secure the surrender of the French ship Bucentuare.

As well as his service during the Napoleonic Wars, he is also notable for being the first claimant of Ferdinandia, a submerged volcanic island near Sicily which emerged from the Mediterranean in 1831 after an earthquake. Senhouse's planting of the Union Jack (he named the island 'Graham Island' after the First Lord of the Admiralty) provoked further claims from the King of Naples and the French (the Spanish also showed interest), though the potential conflict vanished as quickly as the island itself did.

Senhouse "died on board H.M.S. 'Blenheim' at Hong Kong on the 13th June 1841, aged 60 years, from the effects of a fever contracted during the zealous performance of his arduous duties at the capture of the heights of Canton in May 1841," during the First China War (1840-42).]