Footnotes
1. For some twenty years he was in charge of office and field parties on the detail survey and plan drawing. He had the local superintendence and direction, under Captain Williams, R.E., of the survey of the property belonging to the duchy of Lancaster at Langeinor, in South Wales, and of the Royal domain of Windsor Castle, under Major Tucker, R.E. His qualifications, as displayed in the direction of these surveys, led to his selection for the charge of the London survey, but his connection with it on the part of the Ordnance, was early broken, by his receiving, in July, 1848, the appointment of surveyor to the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers, at 200l. a-year, which salary has since been considerably increased. On leaving the corps he received a silver medal and gratuity for his long services and exemplary conduct. Ever since his discharge he has had the superintendence of a large staff of draughtsmen and men surveying underground in the sewers. In February, 1851, seven hundred miles of sewers had been thoroughly examined, and the levels of the different parts minutely ascertained. “The result of this,” observed Sir Henry de la Beche, “is that they had documents connected with the condition of these seven hundred miles of sewerage, such as were not possessed by any metropolis in Europe. It was but justice,“ adds Sir Henry, “in referring to the work as examined, to call attention to the officer who had charge of it—Mr. Joseph Smith, who had executed his task with an ability, a zeal, and perseverance, deserving the highest eulogiums both of that court and the inhabitants of the whole metropolis.”—‘The Times,’ 1st February, 1851. Mr. Smith afterwards became conspicuous for his report condemning the construction of the Victoria Sewer, which was nullified by an entirely antagonistic report from Mr. Forster, the engineer, and gave rise to some little discussion in the House of Commons between Sir Benjamin Hall and Lord Ebrington.—‘The Times,’ July 30, 1851.
2. Remarkable for his great endurance of fatigue and exertion, and as being one of the best and quickest surveyors in the Ordnance. In his early career in Ireland, it is said, he once walked twenty-two miles to work, surveyed twelve miles of lines, and returned the same evening—twenty-two miles—to his quarters! This was considered at the time to be fair progress for six days; indeed, it was facetiously said of him that he carried on his work by moonlight. He was also clever as an observer with the two-feet theodolite, and the accuracy of his arcs was so rigidly faithful, that an officer visited him specially to watch his work, and test the value of his services. More than twenty-one years he took part in the national surveys, and had the local superintendence for many years of large parties dispersed over extensive districts. He also assisted with much credit in the survey of the disputed territory in North America; and, receiving for his good conduct and long services a gratuity and silver medal, was discharged from the corps in January, 1851. Soon afterwards he emigrated to Canada.
3. ‘Companion to Almanac,’ 1849, p. 37.
4. Ibid., p. 38.
5. Ibid.
6. ‘The Observer,’ April 9, and June 4, 1848; ‘Civil Engineer and Architectural Journal,’ and some of the London press.
7. The ‘Times,’ June 10, 1848. “The example of the employment of this corps,” said Mr. Chadwick, “on beneficial public works, qualifying them for civil employment, was worthy of public note, for in their case, the discharge from the military service was not, as he had in Poor Law administration too frequent occasion to observe, the creation of paupers, or mendicants, or worse. There was no class of persons who so soon got into productive civil service.”—Ibid.
8. ‘Illustrated London News,’ June 24, 1848.
9. Ibid.
10. The privates here named have died under rather singular circumstances; Porteous suddenly, in September, 1853, when encamped on Brandon-hill; Pemble in June, 1854, at Elvanfoot, in Lanarkshire, from exhaustion and exposure to stormy weather. The latter had been sent from the camp to build a pile for trigonometrical purposes, and next evening, after a fatiguing day’s work, he was returning to the station, when he lay down to rest himself by the side of a mountain stream, and perished. Both these soldiers were the chief practical workmen in the formation of the structures for the observatories. At lofty heights, where the senses of most men would paralyze, borne up on shaking props or slender supports, they calmly carried on their dangerous operations with spirit, activity, and ingenuity.
11. ‘Illust. Lond. News,’ June 24, 1848; ‘Historic Times,’ January 19, 1849. In both of which are spirited cuts of the scaffolding, &c.
12. The ‘Times,’ November 4, 1848.
13. Ibid. Here, however, it should be noted, that a pole about four feet long, on being let down into the boarded screen below, struck on a moulding and went down whirling. In its descent it struck the great dome, where it received a shell-like range, and dashed off, at a sharp angle, to the North Transept, where it made a hole through the lead of the roof, similar to what a ball of the same diameter would have done if let fall from the same height. In taking down the scaffolding, an eight-feet plank fell on its flat side from the lantern to the pavement in the area of the Cathedral, and the report was like the booming of a piece of ordnance from the deck of a ship of war.
14. Distinguished himself by his gallantry in the storming of the Redan on the 8th September, 1855.
15. The ‘Times,’ November 4, 1848.
16. ‘Builder,’ 7th April, 1849, p. 165.
17. The ‘Times,’ February 1, 1851.
18. Sir John Richardson’s ‘Boat Voyage,’ i., p. 53.
19. Sir John Richardson, ii., p. 141.
20. Sir John Richardson, i., p. 110.
21. Ibid., i., pp. 110, 111.
22. Ibid., i., p. 115.
23. Ibid., pp. 119-131.
24. Sir John Richardson, i., p. 289.
25. Ibid., i., p. 294.
26. Ibid., p. 299.
27. Sir John Richardson, p. 308.
28. Ibid., i., pp. 309-318.
29. Sir John Richardson, i., p. 321.
30. Ibid., p. 326.
31. Sir John Richardson, i., p. 331.
32. This year was enlisted a calculating youth named Alexander Gwin, a native of Londonderry, who had a brother and an uncle in the corps. When only eight years of age, he had “committed to memory the logarithms of all the natural numbers from one to a thousand.” Two years later, his fame having spread, his precocity was tested at Limerick “in the presence of Colonel Colby, Lord Adare, and several other gentlemen of distinction,” to whom he repeated the whole series, without a mistake, taking up two hours and a half to deliver himself of that gigantic mental effort! “His rapidity and correctness in calculating trigonometrical distances, triangles, &c.” were equally remarkable. “In less than one minute, he could make a return in acres, roods, perches, &c., of any quantity of land, by giving him the surveyor’s chained distances; while,” it is added, “the greatest mathematician with all his knowledge would certainly take nearly an hour to do the same, and not be sure of truth in the end.”—‘Year-Book of Facts,’ 1842. ‘Boys’ Own Book,’ p. 381, published by Bogue. This calculating boy, making allowance for the hyperbole of his admirers, was without doubt a youthful prodigy. He is now a corporal on the survey, useful and energetic in his duties; but as the opportunities for improving his faculty for figures have been considerably lessened by the nature of his employments, he has not become what his infantine capabilities promised—another Bidder.
33. He never received any additional remuneration at the close of the work, but his high rate of working-pay may have been considered a sufficient equivalent for his services.
34. Sergeant James Anderson was one of those who was thus favoured. On obtaining his discharge, with a pension of 1s. 10d. a day, in August, 1845, he received an appointment in Worsley-yard, belonging to the estate of Lord Ellesmere, as superintendent and storekeeper of the yard, at a salary of 120l. a-year, with a residence. Since then, such has been his scrupulous character for honesty and careful supervision, that a very handsome addition has been made to his income, and the utmost confidence is reposed in him.
Another was colour-sergeant John Ross, a very ingenious mechanic, who after his discharge, in April, 1848, was appointed engineer at Runcorn, to attend to a small steam fleet in the canal, under the Bridgewater Trust. He invented the drawbridge at the entrance of Fort Albert, Bermuda, the largest of its class in any military fortification, and which can be easily worked by two men, either in throwing it across the ditch, or pulling it in. Many years of his life had been spent in perfecting a new system of locomotion for ships. His great idea was the construction of a vessel which should ride above the control of the waves, resting upon an arrangement of large cylinders, to serve, like the piers of a bridge, as the natural supports of the ship, and within which should be placed his revolving paddle-wheels, to be moved by steam appliances. By a very ingenious contrivance he provided that the sea, which should come in contact with the paddles, should not only be deprived of its resistance, but made to assist in the propulsion of the vessel. The speed he calculated to obtain by his system was almost incredible. Personal trials of an imperfect model, in the waters at Bermuda, convinced him of the practicability of his bold scheme. After quitting Runcorn, ambitious of higher employment, he emigrated to Canada, where he is pursuing the study and development of his novel notions of shipbuilding and locomotion. He received a gratuity and medal for his services in the corps, and might have been promoted to the rank of sergeant-major, but, restless and speculative, he preferred to try what his mechanical genius would yield him in civil life.
35. ‘Cape and the Kaffirs,’ by Mrs. Captain Ward. Bohn’s edit. 1851, p. 230.
36. ‘Graham’s Town Journal,’ October 14, 1848.
37. Sergeant Hearnden, so frequently spoken of in these pages, purchased his discharge and emigrated with his savings, nearly a thousand pounds, to North America, where, from his enterprising spirit and commercial tact, he is realizing a fortune. Throughout his service of twelve years in the corps he was constantly employed on particular duty. In the practical instruction of the Cadets at Sandhurst and Woolwich, and in one of the early expeditions to the disputed territory in the state of Maine, he showed much talent and energy, and obtained great credit. For his services at the Falkland Islands no higher testimony could be afforded to a soldier than the repeated warm acknowledgments of Governor Moody. A word may also be given about his horse. Blanco was brought from South America; was perfectly white, and exhibited signs of good breeding. Hearnden purchased him at a rather high figure; but his subsequent usefulness and hardihood in a trying climate gave him ample reason to be satisfied with his bargain. On the 7th January, 1847, at the Falkland Island races, Blanco had the good fortune to win the Governor’s cup, worth 50l. The cup, made of silver, by Hunt and Roskill, stood about eighteen inches high, and was richly ornamented and chased. On one side the sergeant was represented mounted, with sword, sabre-tache, and gauntlets. In another panel was the inscription. The cover was very massive, and both cover and cup were lined with silver gilt.
38. The ‘Times,’ 12th January, 1849. ‘Corps Papers,’ i., pp. 415, 416.
39. Sir John Richardson, ii., p. 138.
40. Ibid.
41. Sir John Richardson, ii., pp. 138-141.
42. Ibid. ii., p. 144.
43. Sergeant Robert Gardiner, the senior non-commissioned officer of the party, by great assiduity and application so improved his attainments, that he was recommended for the appointment of clerk of works in the royal engineer department. His drawings of the Supreme Court of Adelaide gained him much credit, and his services were marked by skill, zeal, and usefulness up to the period of his discharge, in February, 1854. Military men, particularly in the distant south, have every means of improving their condition; and if they possess a commercial bias, may, with tact, accumulate wealth. Gardiner has not been unmindful of his interests in this respect, and he is in a fair way of making his fortune. Offered for his good services to the public the situation of foreman of works to the department at Hobart Town, he declined it, and he now fills an advantageous appointment in the survey department of the colony of South Australia.
44. ‘Cape Town Mail,’ November 17, 1849.
45. General Mudge measured the line in 1794.
46. While on Salisbury Plain he was visited by Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Pasley, frequently by Colonel Hall and Captain Yolland, and by about fifty other officers of the royal engineers; also by Professors Airy, Sheepshanks, and Cape. The last gentleman was very free in his inquiries. The mode of aligning the instrument did not, at first, satisfy him, but eventually the process having been minutely explained by the sergeant, he went away convinced and gratified. Captain Gosset was present at the laying of the first bar and Captain Hawkins at the last.
47. In the reign of Tarquin I., 606 B.C., a force of Roman soldiers, ordered to construct common sewers, considered the employment an indignity and destroyed themselves. The self-esteem of the Roman soldier which led to so fatal a result, had a different effect on the modern; for the pride of the latter, tempered by a consideration of duty, urged him into the midst of danger and for the sake of humanity to seek it. Reflecting too, that the service, though paramount, was too objectionable for even convicts to perform, the warm eulogy of the Marquis may not be regarded as undeserved by those on whom it was conferred.
48. The accidental destruction of the three smaller chambers was providential, for had they exploded, the battery-shed, with Captain Frome and his assistant, would inevitably have been carried away, and crushed among the falling masses: as it was “the electricity of the two Grove’s batteries, on igniting the powder in the larger chambers, caused an instantaneous disconnection of the Smee’s battery from the smaller chambers, and, at the same time, the table on which they stood was jerked violently forward between two and three feet, upsetting the Smee’s battery on the floor, and throwing out from the others also a quantity of the acids.”—‘Illust. Lond. News,’ September 28, 1850.
49. ‘Professional Papers,’ i., N. S., 68-86. Colonel Lewis’s Paper in ‘Jones’s Journal,’ November, 1850.
50. Now a quartermaster-sergeant. In his early career he was employed in the chronometrical determination of the longitude of Valentia, and for many years rendered very useful services in filling in the railways on the one-inch map. His talents and energy have singled him out at different times for the execution of particular duties. He was intrusted with the local superintendence of the survey, &c., of Her Majesty’s domain at Osborne, in the Isle of Wight; and as a mark of approbation for the “attention and care” he exercised in discharging the duty, His Royal Highness Prince Albert presented him with a cheque for ten pounds. He also had subordinate charge of the survey made for the military encampment at Chobham Common.
51. ‘Professional Papers, R. E.,’ iii., N. S., p. xxiii.
52. Captain Yolland, ‘Sector Volume,’ p. xiii.
53. Private B. K. Spencer took a few observations at these stations.
54. A few observations were taken at this station by Corporal Jenkins.
55. Captain Yolland, ‘Sector Volume,’ xiii.
56. Ibid., xiv.
57. On journeying from Roach, in Cornwall, to Exeter, he sat by the side of the Astronomer Royal, who made various inquiries concerning the survey. At length, he asked, “What instrument have you been using?” “Professor Airy’s zenith sector,” was the reply. “Indeed, I am Professor Airy!” The surprise and pleasure of the sergeant, before unconscious of the presence of the eminent astronomer, may be left to the imagination of the reader to conceive. The incident is memorable, on account of the introduction, thus singularly obtained by sergeant Steel, and of the information he received from the Professor in the efficient use of the instrument, as well as in some salient points connected with astronomy.
58. Captain Yolland’s ‘Sector Volume,’ pp. xi. xii.
59. When oppressed by the monotony of his employments sergeant Steel sometimes resorted to the study of extraneous subjects to hold his mind fresh for his public duties. In this way he learned phonography and the grave game of chess. The latter he acquired, not by the teaching of any interested instructor, but by an examination of a series of numbers of the “Illustrated London News.”
It may be allowed to expatiate a little on this matter. A gentleman, who had visited the Shetland group, being kindly entertained by Mr. Spence of Haroldswick in Unst, quitted the country favourably impressed with the homestead of that good man. Shortly after, “The Illustrated London News” was sent to Mr. Spence, and has ever since been regularly forwarded to him, either by the unknown visitor or the proprietor himself. The mystery which Still hangs over the generous transaction is not without interest in Unst. From Mr. Spence the illustrated journal was weekly supplied for the perusal of the sergeant, then encamped on the lonely island of Balta, who, after devouring its contents, turned his attention to the study of chess.
Discovering no analogy between the powers of the puppets and their forms or designations, he first applied himself to manufacture a suite of men, which should at least have the merit of corresponding in character with the authority they possessed. Eschewing those fantastic shapes in which chessmen are usually carved, and which, indeed, seem as ancient as the grotesque figures on the court cards of a genuine pack, he devised a simple scheme to remind him of their powers. Thirty-two cubes of wood, sixteen stained white and sixteen black, were marked with lines on all their faces, agreeably to the ranks of the warriors, and the liberty they possessed in moving over the board. The definitions were shown by black lines on the white cubes, and white on the black. The bishop having power to roam, under certain restrictions, in diagonal directions, a piece was assigned to his reverence with diagonal lines marked across the square. The rook having a rectangular motion was indicated by a rectangular figure, while the redoubtable knight, always moving obliquely, was reticulated with lines which pointed out the avenues of his march in quest of the enemy. The queen, combining in her will, the power of motion exercised both by the rook and knight, exhibited on her royal square the necessary lines to make plain the extent of her liberty. Just so with the king, who, in this respect had equal power with his consort; but as the queen had authority to move forward or backward as far as the chequers were open, and the king could only plant his royal foot in one check at a time, Steel, to show the curious difference between their majesties, introduced into the king’s escutcheon, a pellet between each pair of lines to mark the limit of his government and distinguish him from his royal spouse. The pawn—the common soldier of the board—permitted only to move forward perpendicularly, and to capture like his knight obliquely, was singled out from the other puppets by three lines issuing from a common centre—one directed upwards to the edge of the square and the other two diverging obliquely to the angles. By this facile application of geometrical combinations he never required to charge his memory with the relative powers and movements of the several pieces, and thus became a fair player at the game of chess.
60. Captain Yolland’s ‘Sector Volume,’ p. xii.
61. Letter from Captain Tylden in the ‘Times,’ April 23, 1851.
62. ‘Parliamentary Papers,’ Cape of Good Hope, June, 1851, p. 47.
63. The incidents of this affair, for the most part, are taken from a Cape paper. One day this corporal was fishing in the Keiskama, armed with a loaded carbine, when he was approached from behind by a Kaffir. The latter fired, and corporal Wilson, who was untouched, fell as if killed. Warily the Kaffir neared the spot; but the corporal, watching his opportunity, jumped up and shot his opponent. The wound was not fatal, but a blow from the butt end of his carbine sealed the Kaffir’s fate, and the corporal took home his head as a trophy.
64. ‘Parliamentary Papers,’ Cape of Good Hope, presented February 3rd, 1852, p. 164.
65. ‘Times,’ May 2, 1851.
69. First Report of Royal Commissioners, Exhibition, App. xxv., p. 128.
70. Ibid., App. vi., p. 50.
71. Chiefly from the First Report, Royal Commissioners, Exhibition, 1851, App. vi., p. 48.
72. The ‘Times,’ July 2, 1851. The reference is too good to be omitted. “The training—which,” proceeds the ‘Times,’ “under Sir C. Pasley’s system they undergo, admirably prepares them for this description of work, and they have brought to it the practical experience acquired during the Irish, Scotch, and English surveys, which it will be recollected they were employed upon in compliance with a most valuable suggestion to that effect made by Colonel Reid. The plan to which we allude is a highly creditable specimen of the skill which the sappers have attained in the art of surveying.”
73. October 7, 1851.
74. October 12, 1851.
75. March 1, 1851, p. 130.
76. Apprehensive of accidents, the public registry of the numbers was, a few days before the closing of the Exhibition, abandoned at the instigation of the police authorities.
77. Robert Marshall, formerly a private in the corps, was also attached to the stationery department. From this he was promoted to be collector from the money-takers. After the Exhibition closed, he received a gratifying testimonial from Earl Granville, and a gratuity of one month’s pay from the Royal Commissioners as a recognition of his services. In consequence of his industry and honesty, he was one of two or three retained for employment under the Commissioners, from whom he was transferred to the Department of Practical Art, to assist in superintending the reception and classified organization of the Trade Museum of specimens presented to it from all countries. In this duty his disciplined habits of order and arrangement made his services of great utility and value. He now holds a lucrative appointment as superintendent to a boarding establishment in London, under the Electric Telegraph Company, obtained for him, in consequence of his creditable conduct at the Exhibition, by Major-General Wylde.
78. ‘Illustrated London News,’ March 1, 1851.
79. The ‘Times,’ February 19, 1851.
80. ‘Illustrated London News,’ February 22, 1851.
81. The ‘Times,’ February 26, 1851.
82. First Report, App. xxvi., p. 130.
83. First Report, App. x., p. 67.
84. One man, private Alexander Dunlop, in the machinery department, was the operator of an interesting experiment with an article of manufacture in which both England and France were concerned. The incident was related by Mr. Overend, at a public dinner, given at the Cutlers’-hall, Sheffield, to the Great Exhibition Local Commissioners for that town. Among the jurors there was a French Gentleman, who very properly showed great zeal in protecting the interests of his countrymen. He admitted that Sheffield had made the best files, but he maintained that there was a house in France that could make them incontestibly superior. He challenged Sheffield to the trial, and selecting the house with which he would make the test, it happened to be that of the Mayor of Sheffield, Mr. Turton, who accepted it. From France files were brought over for the purpose, and a French engineer was despatched across the Channel to use them. Messrs. Turton did not send to Sheffield to have files made specially for the occasion, but merely went to a London customer, whom they supplied with files, and took a few, indiscriminately, from his stock. Private Dunlop was chosen to use the English file against the French engineer and the French files made for the occasion. Two pieces of steel being selected upon which to try the files, they were fixed in two vices. The Frenchman was stripped to his work, with sleeves turned up, and all encumbrances likely to affect his strength and freedom of action, were removed. Dunlop was very differently garbed; his coat was buttoned up to the throat, and he was, in all respects, going, as it were, to parade. Both now, by a signal, began to work simultaneously, but Dunlop, a very powerful blacksmith, had filed the steel down to the vice before the French engineer had got one-third through. When the files were examined, that of Messrs. Turton was found to be as good as ever, while the French one was nearly worn out. The French juror then said no doubt he was beaten in that trial; but Messrs. Turton’s file must have been made to cut steel only, whereas the French file was better adapted for iron. A new trial then took place upon the iron, and the result was still more in favour of the English file.
85. ‘Fraser’s Magazine.’
86. This gave offence to one London periodical—the ‘Builder’ (April 5, 1851, p. 212). Its antagonism, however, is consistent, for it has always advocated that the services of the sappers should be confined purely to military duties, and that the national surveys, &c., should be wholly controlled and regulated by civil energy and operation. Still, with all its opposition, it spoke of the sappers at the Exhibition, in a qualified sense, as intelligent and efficient.
87. ‘First Report,’ p. xxxvii.
88. ‘First Report,’ App., vi., p. 49.
89. ‘First Report,’ p. xxi. It may be worth remarking, that Mr. Cobden, the persevering enemy of naval and military establishments, was so satisfied with the conduct and services of the corps, that he was heard to say, he would never in his advocacy for military retrenchment, seek to reduce the numbers of the sappers.
90. ‘Hampshire Advocate,’ May 10, 1851.
91. ‘Juries Reports,’ Exhibition, 1851, p. 222.
92. Ibid.
93. The particulars taken from sergeant Forsyth’s statements in ‘Report of Committee of Manage. High. Dest., 1852,’ pp. 15-18, 35-37.
94. ‘Report of Committee of Manage. High. Dest., 1852,’ p. 41.
95. Ibid., p. 19.
96. Ibid., pp. 18-21.
97. ‘Report of Committee of Manage. High. Dest., 1852,’ p. 41.
98. Ibid.
99. Ibid.
100. Ibid.
101. Was formerly in the sappers, from which he was discharged a corporal in January, 1838, on a pension of 1s. 7d. a-day, after a service of twenty-three years. Most of his military career was spent on the survey of Ireland, in which he was found a zealous and correct surveyor. Soon after quitting the corps he emigrated to South Australia, and was hired by the Commissioners for the colony as a draughtsman in the land office. He was one of the first race of surveyors in the settlement, and his duties, carried on through an unexplored intricate wilderness, were extremely toilsome and trying. At one time the survey department was thrown into great difficulty by the resignation of the original survey staff, which was the more embarrassing as emigrants were pouring into the colony by thousands, and land was rapidly purchased. In this extremity corporal McLaren, to meet the great and pressing wants of the colonists, exerted himself with untiring energy. The Governor, Colonel Gawler, in writing of his services (‘Times,’ November 7, 1846), said, “Corporal McLaren was a fine fellow, who would have answered all my purposes if I could have cut him up into ten or twenty living portions, but who, unhappily for me, was not thus divisible.” He was afterwards attached to the department of the surveyor-general, and ultimately, by his commendable labours, his experience, and valuable co-operation, received the appointment of deputy surveyor-general, which he now fills. His income is about 700l. a-year. A report by him (‘Times,’ September 20, 1852), on the overland route from Adelaide to Mount Alexander, is a fair specimen of his literary attainments and business-like habits.
102. ‘Naval and Military Gazette,’ 21st August, 1852.
103. Ibid., September 18, 1852.
104. ‘Naval and Military Gazette,’ September 18, 1852.
105. King’s ‘Campaigning in Kaffirland,’ 2nd edit., p. 237.
106. After this disaster, arms or ammunition were forbidden to be conveyed from one post to another, except by the express orders of the Major-Generals or officers commanding divisions, who were held responsible that sufficient escorts were provided to defend the convoys.
107. King’s ‘Campaigning in Kaffirland,’ 2nd edit., p. 237.
108. Said to be young Webb, a driver (in ‘Naval and Military Gazette,’ August 21, 1852); but Captain Moody has recorded, that the service was performed by private Murphy.