'The first book containeth definitions of divers words and terms, names
and lengthes of divers English measures, the true difference between
an acar of land measured with a pearch of 12 foot, 18 foot, 20 foote,
or 24 foote in length, and an acar of land measured with a pearch
of 16 foot and an halfe foote in length, names and types of divers
geometrical instruments, names and dwelling places of workmen which
can make and doe sell such instruments, meanes to discerne whether
or no the edge of a ruler is right, and infallible instructions by
which an ingenious reader may readily measure upon any smooth table,
drummes head, stoole or other superficies measurable lengths, bredthes,
heights, and depthes, apply known lengthes, bredthes, heights, and
depthes to many good purposes, know recorded heighthes, lengthes, and
bredthes of some famous monuments in Sarum, in Westminster and in the
honorable citie of London, know the antiquitie of the sayd citie of
London, draw the true plat of any place, make a fit scale for any platt
or mappe, reduce many plats into one fair mappe, reduce a mappe from a
bigge forme to a lesse forme, and from a lesse forme to a bigge forme,
and learne to know the commodities and discommodities of places.
[140]'The second book sheweth how an ingenuous person may measure a
right-lined distance between any two places described in a mappe, how
he may measure the circuite and superficiall content of any described
peece of land, how he may find the centre of any polygonon equiangle
figure, how he may find the center of any circle, how he may make by a
part of the circumference the whole circumference agreeing unto that
part, how he may bring any right lined figure into triangles and how he
may know what number of angles in a right-lined figure are equall to
any certain number of right angles.
'The third book instructeth the reader to make any triangle, square, or
long-square, to erect a plumbe line upon any part or point of a line,
to divide any circle into divers numbers of equall parts, to make any
polygonon equiangle figure, to make an egge-forme figure, to know when
a figure is inscribed within another figure or circumscribed about
another figure, to inscribe certain rightlined figures within certain
other rightlined figures, to circumscribe certain rightlined figures
about certain other rightlined figures, to divide a right line into
so many equall parts as he will, to tell whether a thing seen afar
off doth stand still, goe from him, or come towards him, to draw a
line equall to any assigned arch-line or to the whole circumference
of any assigned circle or to any assigned part of a circle, to draw a
circular line equall to any assigned right line, to separate, lay out,
and inclose within a long square, one, two or three acars of land by
diverse waies from any peece of ground adjoyning, to change a figure of
one forme into an equall figure of another appointed forme, to make a
right line angle equall to a right line angle given, to draw a parallel
to a right line given, and to cube any assigned sphere.
'The fourth booke teacheth the reader to know fruitfull barren and
minerall grounds, growthes ages and solid contents of trees, and
where a good air is. It doth also teach the reader to build for the
preservation of health, to make a tunnell of a chimney so as no smoak
shall annoy him in his house, to fell timber and make sound boords for
buildings, to sink a well in due time and in a place where water may
be found, and to know whether a new found spring of water will drie
up in a hot and dry summer; also it sheweth how water in a shallow
well is more wholesome than water in a deep well, how every well ought
to be uncovered[141]and often times drawn drie, how the use of water
is necessary, how divers sorts of water have divers qualities, how
there are divers meanes to trie among many sorts of water which water
is best, how great store of water may be thrown out of a new-devised
squerte upon any fired house or other thing, how water may be brought
in pipes or in gutters within the ground to any appointed sesterne,
how the depth of any sea may be found, how the force of running waters
which weare away land may be broken; how wet grounds and bogges may
be drained, and how by the art taught in these 4 bookes the ingenuous
reader may devise new workes, strange engins and instruments not only
for private pleasure but also for sundry purposes in the common-wealth.'
Memorandum:--in the XXIII chapter of the third booke of Lucar Solace,
in the beginning of the chapter, he quotes the 67 chapter of his booke
☞ intituled Lucar appendix, which I never saw.
_Note._