ON SURVEY AND VALUATION OF IRELAND.
63 phic military schools of Italy, France, Germany and England, different modes are A/r.
adopted; the topographic engineers of France and Italy adhere to the principle of
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W*/&»» -BoW-light and shade in their drawings and engraved maps.
On the Continent I purchased
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m^T^T^ a model of topographic representation, engraved at the military school in Lombardy ^ ^ '^ by Bordiga, in 1812, by order of the minister of war, which is perhaps, of its kind, one of the finest specimens of the art yet executed.
The engraver of this map was brought from Italy by Buonaparte, to engrave military maps in the Depot tie la Guerre, at Paris.
The Carte des Chasses, began in the reign of Louis the 14th, and finished about 1807, consists of 12 large sheets.
The price for an engraved copy is about 20 guineas; they are beautifully engraved.
Several of the maps published of north Italy, after the conquest of that country by Buonaparte, are interesting specimens of art; and the large map of Elbe, engraved by Blondeau, in the Dep6t de la Guerre in Paris, is of superior execution.
It was executed by the topographic engineers of France in 1802 and 1803.
Mr.
Gardner, of Regent-street, is in pos-session of copies of this model of topography.
I have seen some maps executed by the military topographic engineers of Germany upon quite a different principle; they represent the irregularity of surface by shading, according to the angle of ascent or declivity, representing the features of the country by light and dark shades, in exact conformity with the gentle swells, and rapid undulations of surface; and I believe this to be the principle adopted in the engraved ordnance map of England.
Is that the mode you would advise to be adopted?—I
should rather like some method derived from accurate models of the country; for although I do admit the principle to be correct, yet if it be faithfully adopted in drawing the features of mountainous districts, I fear the drawings and maps will have a dead, dull and heavy appearance.
Do you tljink modelling could be applied with any advantage to the description of the features of the country ?•—I
do ; it is the nearest approximation of art in representing the features of a country, and for military purposes superior to any "map representation, and might be applied to many other important uses.
I have made a model of part of Mayo, containing 200 square miles ; the perpendicular and horizontal scales are four inches to an English mile.
This model is in the museum of Dublin College.
I made other models ; one of Clare Island, which is in the Royal Irish Academy, and another of the Island of Achil, the largest on the coast of Ireland: in the large model every road, rivulet, lake, wood, town, &c.
is represented, with the outline of the strata.
What surveys of Ireland have been done r—Ttie oldest map of Ireland is in Arrow-smith's memoir, on the construction of the map of Scotland, being of the fourteenth century.
A map of Ireland was published in the reign of queen Eii2abeth, bcale 14 English miles to an inch.
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Speed, in 1610, when James the ist was colonizing the north of Ireland, gave in a general map.
About the time of Charles the 1st, was published a map of Ireland.
A map of Ireland, during the middle ages, by William Beaufort.
Richard Blome, by His Majesty's orders, made a map of Ireland.
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A survey and valuation was made of Ireland, called the Strafford survey.
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Sir William Petty published an Atlas of the county maps of Ireland.
These maps point out the boundaries of parishes and baronies, but not of townlands.
The barony maps in the Record Tower, Dublin Castle, by Sir William Petty, are on a scale of 40 perches to an inch ; they distinguish the boundaries of parishes and townlands; the bogs are all dotted, and the hills and mountains are drawn in profile; a great part of the maps were destroyed when Dublin Tower was burnt, but have bpen replaced by copies taken by General Valiancy and Major Taylor, from the original maps in two volumes, in the king's library at Paris, which had been captured in the Irish channel, by a French privateer, and carried to France, where they now remain.
I examined them in 1821, in the king's library, and with some difficulty was permitted to copy the map of the barony of Tyrawly, which was all it contained of that county.
" The number of the authenticated copies in the surveyor general's " office, Record Tower, Dublin Castle, is about 1,430 ; of these about 260 are of " the baronies, and the remaining 1,170 of the parishes; about 67 of the barony •" maps are burned, with more or less injury; 130 are fully preserved, and two are " stated to be lost.
Of the parochial maps, about 391 have suffered from tliej&re,
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