The Geodesy of Britain (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 Excerpt: ...parish, when they are too bulky to be put together on one sheet, and still less when the cultivated is on one scale and the mountain on another; or when the parishes are on the 0 of nature, the counties on the six-inch scale, and the kingdoms on one-inch. The five-chain scale, or 16 inches to a mile, can be judged of as the 5a'e0 of nature with every advantage that the 25, or-jVoo nas, so far as we are concerned, within our own country. The superiority of the latter scale consists only in comparing Britain with foreign States who have adopted it as a universal language of scales, --like the Arab numerals as that of number, --which should not be despised when all England comes to be re-surveyed. Some, however, may then ask, Are we to give or take the law? and is it not sufficient to adapt our geographical map to the continental taste? Our maritime situation may require a larger scale, without which justice would not be done to the labours of our hydrographers. 2. County Map.--The original two-inch survey possesses advantages over the one-inch, besides that of size, and it dispenses with the exaggeration of lines and small objects, inseparable from the attempted minuteness of the smaller scale, although far short of what has been actually attained in the plotted manuscript. It should be preserved in that state for the great purpose of registration and transfer of landed estates, for which, until you descend to small freeholds requiring the town survey, it is better adapted and more generally applicable than Mr. Coulson ami others seem at all aware; indeed, this may be said of the one-inch map, as published by the Ordnance. Take any sheet, and you will see that every road, every rivulet, every clump of wood--nay, every garden, and almost every house, thoug...