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scientific zeal which grew out of the experiences of the Peninsular 

 War, and was perhaps best represented before the eyes of later gene- 

 rations by Sir John Burgoyne, one of Larcom's truest friends. In 

 1824, Larcom commenced his labours in the Ordnance Survey of Eng- 

 land, but was selected by Major Colby for the Irish Survey in 1826. 

 Here he found himself happily coupled with one who had been known 

 to him from boyhood, the late General Portlock. in those arduous 

 operations of the Trigonometrical Survey by which Ireland was con- 

 nected with the sister island in a network of triangulation. In 1828 

 he was entrusted by General Colby with the central organization at 

 Dublin of the whole Survey. To him was assigned, under the imme- 

 diate command of his chief, the task of examining and comparing all 

 the plans and documents as they were sent in from all portions of the 

 Survey, of compiling them into county maps, engraving, and finally 

 publishing them. To him fell the training and discipline of an army 

 of draftsmen, computers, engravers, and printers, a large proportion 

 of whom were men of his own corps. While in this position, he 

 deserves the credit of adopting and of adapting every invention, such 

 as that of electrotype, by which economy could be secured and produc- 

 tion multiplied ; and every Continental improvement, such as that of 

 Contouring, a novelty at first warmly opposed, but gradually tri- 

 umphant. In the course of a very few years the establishment at 

 Mountjoy, in Phoenix Park, was without an equal in the world, the 

 pride of Ireland, the admiration of scientific travellers. It was after- 

 wards transferred to Southampton under the able superintendence of 

 his brother officer, Sir Henry James. 



But Larcom was not only distinguished as a scientific man, he was 

 pre-eminently the literary man of the party ; and bis mental activity 

 was early displayed in promoting that enlargement of the original 

 idea of the Survey which General Colby was wise enough to encourage. 

 In the preface to the "Memoir of Templemore," the General says : — 

 " Lieutenant Larcom conceived the idea that with such opportunities 

 a small additional cost would enable him, without retarding the 

 execution of the maps, to draw together a work embracing every 

 description of local information relating to Ireland. He submitted this 

 idea to me, and I obtained the sanction of the Irish Government for 

 carrying it into effect. To him I have entrusted the execution, 

 and this volume is the first public result." Colby himself, as his 

 biographer, General Portlock, admits, " was not an antiquarian ; " 

 Larcom was. He applied himself to the study of the Irish language, 

 in order to qualify himself for his self-imposed task ; and under his 

 enthusiastic guidance competent persons searched every record, and 

 made every personal investigation necessary for the historical and 

 literary branch of the Survey. A vast body of information, of the 

 highest value, was gradually collected ; much of it already digested ; 



