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    RENNELL
    James. A description of the roads in Bengal and Bahar.
    RENNELL
    RENNELL
    James. A description of the roads in Bengal and Bahar.
    RENNELL

    Lot 59. RENNELL, James.

    A description of the roads in Bengal and Bahar.

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    A description of the roads in Bengal and Bahar. 90780
    Containing I. The direct roads from Calcutta to all the cities, Towns, and Places of Note in Bengal and Bahar; shewing the measured Distances between the Stages, and the Number and Situation of the Fords and Ferries that are to be crossed. II. III. IV. The direct roads from the three other principal cities, viz. Moorshedabad, Patna, and Dacca; arranged in the same Manner. V. The cross roads from the subordinate Military Stations and Factories, to all the Places of Note within their respective Neighbourhoods: with an index. By James Rennell, late Major of Engineers an Surveyor General to the Honourable the East India Company.
    [London], Printed by order of the Honourable the Court of Directors of the said company, 1778

    Rare. ESTC lists 8 copies: in the UK, Brighton Central Library, BL, Oxford, Winchester; In the U.S.A, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Texas, and Yale University, Seeley G. Mudd Library. In addition, University of Melbourne, Baillieu Library.

    Rennell (1742–1830), obtained a Bengal army commission as practitioner engineer in the construction of the new citadel at Fort William, and the particular commission, in place of the recently deceased Hugh Cameron, as ‘a Surveyor of the New Lands [in Bengal]’. He carried out various river surveys until Clive, in 1865, gave Rennell new instructions, to start a general survey of Bengal, which he began by cross-country traverses westward through Bengal by quadrant and chain. In Clive’s last month in Bengal (January 1767) Rennell was appointed surveyor-general. For health reasons Rennell returned to England in 1777. Whilst in England in 1778 Rennell proposed a new set of maps of Bengal to replace the inadequate small-scale maps published by the East India Company from his earlier surveys. The present work was published two years prior to his renowned Bengal Atlas.

    Description

    First edition. 8vo., [2],iv,[2],281,[3]pp., engraved folding map frontispiece, trimmed along fore-edge, offset to title, split to folding table at end, modern calf-backed marbled boards, vellum tips, a very good copy.

    Provenance: New York Historical Society (2 stamps to title).

    Bibliography

    Pickett, 1127.