The Ordnance Survey of Great Britain. 243 
THE ORDNANCE SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN—ITS 
HISTORY AND OBJECT. 
By JOSIAH PIERCE, JR. 
I. Tue Institution or Nationa SURVEYS. 
THE earliest surveys were not laid down as maps but consisted 
of catalogues of property which are called“ terriers ;” of these 
the Domesday Book is the earliest extant. Had the art of survey- 
ing been properly understood at the time of the Norman conquest 
there would probably have been a Saxon cadastre along with 
the Domesday Book, which was ordered by William the Con- 
-querer in the year 1085. 
“ After this had the king a very large meeting, and a very deep 
consultation with his council about this land, how it was occupied, 
and by what sort of men. Then sent he his men all over Eng- 
land, into each shire, commissioning them to find out ‘how many 
hundreds of hides were in the shire ; what land the king himsélf 
had, and what stock upon the land, or what dues he ought to have 
by the year from the shire.” Also he commissioned them to re- 
cord in writing, ‘How much land his archbishops had, and his 
diocesan bishops, and his abbots, and his earls; and though I 
may be prolix and tedious, what and how much each man had, who 
was the occupier of land in England, either in money or in stock, 
and how much money it was worth.’ So very narrowly indeed 
did he commission them to trace it out, that there was not a single 
hide nor a yard of land (the fourth part of an acre), nay, more- 
over, (it is shameful to tell, though he thought it no shame to do 
it) not even an Ox, a cow, or a swine was there left, that was not 
set down in his writ, and all the recorded particulars were after- 
wards brought to him.”—Saxon Chronicle, by Ingram. 
The publication of the Domesday Book was ordered first by 
George III. in 1767, and completed in 1783. After the discovery 
of the art of photozincography it was reproduced “in facsimile ”’ 
in 1864-5, under the direction of Lieut.-Gen’l. Sir Henry James, 
then director of the Ordnance Survey. 
