34 



was confided to Colonel Watson, who employed in the service 

 several young officers of engineers, among others, Mr (afterwards 

 Major-General) Roy. The survey, which was limited to the main- 

 land, was commenced in 1747, and completed in 1755. It was 

 conducted with considerable skill, and was the means of illustrating 

 many of the Roman antiquities of North Britain. The field work 

 was carried on in summer, and the drawings were prepared in 

 Edinburgh Castle during the winter months. Of this work, General 

 Roy himself says that, " having been carried on with inferior instru- 

 ments, and the sum allowed having been very inadequate for its 

 proper execution, it is rather to be considered as a magnificent mili- 

 tary sketch than a very accurate map of a country." When the 

 drafts of this map were finished, they were deposited in the Royal 

 Library, where they lay totally forgotten till 1804, when being re- 

 quired for a new map of Scotland, undertaken by Arrowsmith, at 

 the suggestion of the Commissioners of Highland roads and bridges, 

 they were discovered after considerable search. 



Arrowsmith's map was founded on Roy's survey of the mainland, 

 and many other materials which he deemed authentic. It was com- 

 menced in 1805 and finished in 1807, on a scale of Jth of an inch to 

 a mile or |-th of the scale of the military survey. Since Arrowsmith's 

 map appeared, many portions of the country have been surveyed and 

 published, some of these, among which may be specially noted, 

 Lanarkshire by Forrest, Mid-Lothian by Knox, Sutherlandshire by 

 Burnett and Scott, and Edinburgh, Fife, and Haddington by Green- 

 wood, have been deservedly reputed. But, as must ever be the case 

 in private enterprises, these are confined to the wealthier and more 

 populous districts, no recent survey having been made of any of the 

 more remote regions. The latest effort of this kind, which is likely 

 to prove the last, is the survey of Edinburgh and Leith within the 

 Parliamentary boundaries, on the scale of 5 feet to a mile, by W. 

 and A, K. Johnston, a reduction of which has recently appeared. 



The principal triangulation for the Ordnance Survey of Britain 

 commenced by General Roy, on Hounslow Heath, near London, in 

 1784, was extended to Scotland in 1809, but the operations were 

 discontinued for the three following years, the persons employed 

 having been removed to England. In 1813 the Ordnance zenith 



