Page:Petty 1851 The Down Survey.djvu/12

 In the Supplement to the Third Annual Report of the Irish Record Commissioners, page 499, an extract is given from a memorandum by Mr. Hardinge, of the Surveyor-General's office, in which, speaking of documents connected with the Down Survey, more especially the barony maps, he writes: "Similar copies of these were in the possession of the Shelburne family, and deposited in Shelburne House, Stephen's-green, where I saw them about the year 1777." This seemed to render it probable that the History of the Down Survey was also still preserved among the muniments of the family, but it had never been printed.

In the year 1834, at the sale of the library of Lord De Clifford, the manuscript now printed was purchased by the late James Weale, Esq., of the department of Woods and Forests, an ardent collector of matters and papers relating to Ireland. Mr. Weale thus described it at the time, in a letter to the Editor, dated Whitehall, April 1st, 1834:

"I forget whether I have informed you of my recent acquisition of a thick folio volume of manuscript, comprising copies of all the official proceedings preliminary to and during the employment of Sir William Petty in the business of the Down Survey, with a running commentary, written by the Doctor. The writing was supposed to be Sir William's; but though it resembles his, I am satisfied it is only a fair transcript, made under his personal direction, of the third article mentioned by him in the pamphlet I sent to you, as ready for publication, in answer to Sankey's charges against him. Or it may be a first volume of the larger work he there speaks of, as giving a full account of the Survey.

"I bought it at the sale of Lord De Clifford's manuscripts, and Mr. Thorpe made me pay for it; but I am very well satisfied with my bargain, for it contains an invaluable mass of information, which I have not yet discovered to be elsewhere in existence, though it is