SOLID MEASURE

Is that of Timber, Stone Digging and Liquods; and the Rule for Working is

TO MULTIPLY the Length and Breadth together, and that Product by the Depth or thickness and the Last Product will be the Content in Cubick Inches which if Timber or Stone divide by 1725 (the Cubick Inches in a Foot Solid) and the Quotient gives the Content in Solid Feet.

EXAMPLE

If a Tree be 16 Foot Long and 18 perches Square, how many Solid feet Doth it Contain.

THERE is a near affinity between the art of Measuring Timber and that of Gauging Liquors for both are Perform'd by

Cube or Solid Measure for as often as there are found 1720 Solid or Cubick Inches in a Piece of Timber, (of what form Soever) so many Solid Feet as it Said to Contain: So likewise in the Art of Gauging so many times as 282 (the Solid Inches in a Beer or Ale Gallon) are found in any Vessel of Such Liquor; So many Gallons is Such a Vessel Said to hold. And so of Wine but in that the Divisor alters, it being 231 Sclid or Cubick Inches and the Gallon of Dry Measure contains 2721⁄4 Cubucal Inches.

MENSURATION OF PLAIN SUPERFICES SUCH AS PLANK, WAINSCOT, PAINTINGS, GLASS, &C.

THE GENERAL RULE is

TO MULTIPLY the Length by the Breadth the Product is the Content: but in Measuring Plank it is Usual to Multiply the Length in feet by the Breadth In Inches and Divide by 12 the Quotient is the Content in Square feett.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE LEAP YEAR. DOMINICAL LETTER, GOLDEN NUMBER, CYCLE OF THE SUN, ROMON INDICTION, EPACT &C. WITH

MEMORIAL VERSES ON THE ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVIL KALENDER.

The Golden Number or Prime is a Circular Revolution of 19 years in which term of years it hath been anciently Supposed that the Sun and Moon do make all the Variety of Aspects one to another.

GEOGRAPHICAL DEFINITIONS

Defin ist. The Globe of the Earth is a Spherical Body Composed of Earth and Water &c. Divided in to Contenants Islands and Seas.

2d. A Contenent is a great Quantity of Land not Divided nor Separated by the Sea wherein are many Kingdoms and

Principalities; as Europe Asia Africa is one Continent and America Another.

7 The Ocean is a general Collection of the Waters wch environeth the Earth on every side.

Fryday March 11th 1747/8. Began my Journey in Company with George Fairfax,' Esqr., we travell'd this day 40 Miles to Mr. George Neavels in Prince William County

"The book ends with astronomical exercises, the names of the stars, the constellations, and the method of using a globe.

This journey with George William Fairfax, seven years Washington's senior, was undertaken on the authority of the Hon. William Fairfax, agent for Thomas, Lord Fairfax, to lay out his lordship's lands in the Shenandoah for leaseholders. James Genn and, apparently, several other older men composed the party. The journal is the earliest of Washington's diaries.

"The double date was the English custom, largely a commercial necessity in dealing with Continental Europe, because England did not adopt the Gregorian calendar, as had Europe, until 1752. The proper date in this instance is 1748.

'George William Fairfax (1725-1787) was the eldest son of the Hon. William Fairfax and his second wife, Sarah Walker. He took up his permanent residence at his father's estate, Belvoir, just below Mount Vernon. He became a burgess for Frederick County, 1748–49, and married Sarah, eldest daughter of Col. Wilson Cary, in December, 1748, who became, on the death of her father-in-law's third wife, Deborah Clarke, mistress of Belvoir. He was colonel of Frederick militia, 1755-56,

Saturday March 12th This Morning Mr. James Genn 10 the surveyer came to us we travell'd over the Blue Ridge11 to Capt. Ashby's" on Shannondoah River, Nothing remarkable happen'd

Sunday March 13 Rode to his Lordships Quarter1 about 4 Miles higher up y. River we went through most beautiful Groves of Sugar Trees and spent the best part of the Day in admiring the Trees and richness of the Land

and held various customs offices. He went to England in 1773 on business, and the Revolutionary War broke out before he returned. He was sympathetic toward the Colonial cause, and there are grounds for belief that, had he been in America at the time, he would have aligned himself with the colonists. He died at Bath, England, April 3, 1787.

They had set out from Belvoir, crossed the Occoquan Ferry, and struck into the old road leading from the head of Quantico to the Prince William Courthouse of the day at Cedar Run; whence they pushed on west to George Neavil's ordinary.

George Neavil, whose will was proved in Fauquier in 1774, lived and kept an ordinary at the junction of two important north and south interior highways, namely: (1) that which Washington was about to follow leading north from the falls of the Rappahannock at Falmouth, through the thoroughfare of Cedar Run to Ashbys Gap of the Blue Ridge, and (2) the older Indian trail originally known as the Shenandoah Hunting Path and later as the Carolina Road, which led south from Williams Gap of the Blue Ridge, skirted the Bull Run Mountain on the east, and at Neavil's turned west to cross the Rappahannock at Normans Ford above the Great Fork. Both these roads had been avenues by which, during the 15 years prior to Washington's journey, pioneers had migrated from the tidewater to settle the upper Piedmont. Until 1759 this tavern was in Prince William. It was mentioned by Archdeacon Burnaby, as well as by other literary eighteenth-century travelers in Virginia, and still stands in the village of Auburn in Fauquier County. The confusion of Neavil's and West's ordinaries is cleared, and authority for the location of both, based upon local records, may be found in Fauquier Historical Society Bulletin, vol. 1, p. 66. 10 James Genn was, in 1748, the county surveyor of Prince William County, who lived on the Falmouth Road some distance south of Neavil's. It was the rendezvous with him which determined the route via Neavil's. Genn was an experienced wilderness surveyor. In 1746 he had been engaged in the work of running the Northern Neck back line from the head spring of Conway (Rapidan) in the Blue Ridge to the head spring of Potomac in the Alleghanies, and in 1747 he had surveyed Lord Fairfax's South Branch and Greenway Court Manors. It was to subdivide the former into lots to be leased to tenants that the present expedition was on foot.

"They followed the trail through what became Fauquier, over the route subsequently adopted for the Winchester Road, and crossed the Blue Ridge at Ashbys Bent. This route was subsequently laid down by Dalrymple on the 1755 edition of the Fry and Jefferson map.

"This was Capt. John Ashby, who kept the original Shenandoah Ferry where the Winchester road still crosses that river. He was the eldest son of Thomas Ashby, for whom Ashbys Bent of the Blue Ridge was named.

This was the future Greenway Court, where Lord Fairfax was to establish his residence a year after Washington's journey. It had been laid out as a quarter in the summer of 1747.

14

Monday 14th We sent our Baggage to Capt. Hites 1 (near Frederick Town) 15 went ourselves down the River about 16 Miles to Capt. Isaac Penningtons (the Land exceeding Rich and Fertile all the way produces abundance of Grain Hemp Tobacco &ca.) in order to lay of some Lands on Cates Marsh and Long Marsh 16

Tuesday 15th We set out early with Intent to Run round the sd. Land but being taken in a Rain and it Increasing very fast obliged us to return it clearing about one oClock and our time being too Precious to Loose we a second time ventur'd out and Worked hard till Night and then return'd to Penningtons we got our Supper and was lighted into a Room and I not being so good a Woodsman as the rest of my Company striped myself very orderly and went into the Bed as they called it when to my Surprize I found it to be nothing but a Little Straw-Matted together without Sheets or any thing else but only one thread Bear blanket with double its Weight of Vermin such as Lice Fleas &c. I was glad to get up (as soon as the Light was carried from us) I put on my Cloths and Lay as my Companions. Had we not been very tired I am sure we should not have slep'd much that night I made a Promise not to Sleep so from that time forward chusing rather to sleep in the open Air before a fire as will appear hereafter.

March the 15th. Survey'd for George Fairfax Esqr. a Tract of Land lying on Cates Marsh and Long Marsh.

17

Wednesday 16th We set out early and finish'd about one oClock and then Travell'd up to Frederick Town where our

14Jost Hite disputed the claim of Lord Fairfax to certain lands in the so-called Northern Neck of Virginia.

15 Frederick Town, the same as Winchester.

16 Cates and Long Marsh are formed by small streams which flow from the foothills of North Mountain to the Shenandoah; Long Marsh is named on several maps.-Toner.

"George William Fairfax. Henry Ashby and Robert Taylor are given as chainmen, Robert Ashby as marker and William Lindsy as pilot.