Add MS 65181

C. DANIELL: exercises in military draftsmanship; 1842-1844. Scales vary. Fifteen plans drawn as exercises in fortification and topographical mapping; five of the plans relate to systems of Vauban and three to those of Cormontaigne. The first nine plans are numbered in sequence; they are all signed 'C. Daniell' and dated. On the verso, Daniell's name appears again with the identification 'B85' preceding, followed by a second date, and in all these plans but one, f. 4v, the initials 'JA'. On f. 10v, the map immediately following this sequence, the name appears in full as 'J. M. Adams'. It is probable that Daniell was a cadet either at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, or at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. The 'B85' suggests Sandhurst, where, during this period, cadets belonged to one of two companies, and were identified by their company letter and number, which they wore in the form of a cap-badge. See Lt.-Col. A. F. Mockler-Ferryman, Annals of Sandhurst: a chronicle of the Royal Military College from its foundation to the present day (1900), pp. 29-30. The initials and dates on the versos of the plans, which precede Daniell's dates on the rectos in each case by between two days and nearly four months, may suggest that these numbered and dated plans were part of a series of regular assignments in a course of military draftsmanship set for Daniell on the dates initialled by Adams. In the 1840s cadets at Sandhurst were required to be 'conversant with the 1st and 3rd systems of Vauban' to qualify for their commission. For further details of the courses at Sandhurst in the 19th century, see Mockler-Ferryman, op. cit. passim. Daniell and Adams have not been identified. Donated by the Royal Engineers, Mapping and Charting Establishment, June 1987.

Ink and watercolour on paper. Fifteen plans. Largest sizes 730 x 625mm. and 585 x 850mm.