INTRODUCTION 



teenth- century hand, calling attention to 

 various statements, making Chaucer the author 

 of the old saw, "Thou art an old doting 

 fool," and stating that Rowland's promise of 

 further explaining his use of the levell by a 

 picture, or, as he calls it, a mapp, has not 

 been fulfilled. 



Gough, in his " Typographica Brittanica," 

 mentions two maps, but I have only been 

 able to reproduce one, from a photograph off 

 an engraving in Duncombe's copy of the 

 work, which engraving was discovered by 

 Dr. Vevers of Hereford in 1883. It should 

 be somewhere about the centre of the book ; 

 but I have, for various reasons, put it in the 

 place of the missing frontispiece. 



The two main ostensible reasons for the 

 book, namely, the irrigation scheme, and the 

 commonwealth or community of trades, do 

 not by any means sum up Rowland's resources. 

 He must have had great mechanical skill, as 

 he used his water-power for all sorts of pur- 

 poses, amongst others for turning his kitchen 

 spits (at the factory, not at home), and sawing 

 timber. He soon discovered the cheapness 

 of water traffic, and built a boat to convey his 

 farm produce from the White House to New 

 xxv 



