Page:Petty 1851 The Down Survey.djvu/350

 and accommodated countrey." This, however, was probably only for the sake of contrast with the state of that in which he was to work, which had been so recently the theatre of a desolating civil war, and was from that cause, perhaps, more especially "overgrown with rushes, shrub-wood, bog, and other impediments."

The rate at which the Strafford Survey was paid for is not now known, but in regard to the payment "allowed by the Act" for the present work, it is set down by the " Instructions" appended to the Act, at £3 per thousand acres to the surveyor, with a salary of £400 a year to the surveyor-general.

"The adventurers give much higher rates." It is not known what the adventurers paid at this time, but much, if not all their work, was afterwards performed by Petty and Worsley, and the subsequent acts of settlement and explanation condemn the adventurers' surveys altogether, while admitting the Down Survey as conclusive evidence.

Of the offer made by Dr. Petty to survey the Church and Crown lands for £2600, there is no other record.

The Doctor also, at the instance of his opponents, is urged to "discover" to the council the manner in which he intends to execute his extraordinary proposal, for such, no doubt, it was, and he does so with the proviso that his security be lessened if it be found satisfactory. He then explains the division of labour, which will be found more fully developed in the "Brief Accompt" already referred to. His instruments were, for the most part, manufactured under his own direction. He employed artists in the office, computers for calculations,—and upon the field-work, "it being a matter of great drudgery to wade through boggs and water, climb rocks, fare and lodge hard," &c., he "would instruct foot souldiers, to whom such hardships were familiar." This was a notable violation of precedent, and was afterwards dwelt upon.

obstructions continued to arise, "even," he says, "as my wiser friends had forewarned me." Among others, the former surveyors presented a remonstrance, on which Dr. Petty was again summoned to the council-chamber, and required to answer it. After which the Surveyor-General, who he calls here the "Generall of the Surveyors," again appears to lead the host in opposition, when once more the Doctor is called before the council to answer the charge of intending to employ soldiers to measure "their owne and officers lands," which "would be scandalouse." This objection was easily satisfied. They were to be surveyors, not distributors, and could not know to whom any land would fall; and as their work would not be protracted by themselves, but by other persons in the office, they would only be answerable for the correctness of their measurements, which would be subject to independent