the defences of Bermuda, being the first British Engineer ever sent to the station. He died in the island in 1798, holding at the time the rank of Major.

In the next generation we have ELIAS WALKER, son of Elias Durnford, who received his commission in the Royal Engineers in 1793. He served under his father in the attacks on Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadaloupe, in 1794, and was taken prisoner at Point à Pitre. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General and died in 1850. In the third generation we have his two sons, ELIAS, who was commissioned to the Corps in 1822 and died in 1835, and VINEY, who joined in 1830 and died 1836. In this generation we also have EDWARD WILLIAM, grandson of Andrew Durnford, who entered the Corps in 1826, and is now a Colonel-Commandant and General.

In the fourth generation we have Edward's two sons, ANTHONY WILLIAM, who fell so gallantly at Isandlwana, and ARTHUK GEORGE, who is now a Colonel and Deputy Inspector-General of Fortifications.

It is believed that there will not be wanting members of this Engineer family to represent the Corps in the fifth generation.

MAJOR JAMES RENNELL, F.R.S.,

was born in 1742. He entered the navy in 1756, and served with much distinction for so young a man, in the various desultory expeditions at that time carried out against the French. His surveying powers were even then called into play, as there still exists a plan of the Bay of St. Cast, which bears the inscription, "To the Right Honourable Lord Howe, this plan is dedicated by his obedient humble Servant, J. Rennell, 1758." The "Annual Register" of 1830, in a sketch of his life, gives the following anecdote of him at this period :-Some sloops of war of the enemy being moored in shallow water, beyond reach of our guns, Rennell asked for the loan of a boat. Accompanied by one sailor only, he reconnoitred the sloops, and ascertained that he was correct in his supposition that, owing to an unusually high tide it was possible to reach the vessels. The information thus obtained was acted on with complete success, and the Baleine and Hermione, at anchor before Pondicherry, and within half musket-shot of the place, were cut out by a party, of whom he formed one. Rennell was in the division that attacked the Baleine, and he wrote:

"No sooner were they boarded, and the cables cut but y garrison

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was alarm'd, and ye Ships received a furious cannonading from every gun that could be directed at them. The Ship that we boarded had no sails bent, so that you may imagine what we suffer'd after being exposed a full hour to the fire of yo enemy. Our loss was 8 killed, and I believe 30 wounded."*

Rennell seems to have continued his surveying services throughout the time he remained in the navy, having, amongst other places, made plans of the harbours of Trincomalee and of Diego Rayes, now known as Rodrigues, an island to the eastward of Mauritius.

In 1762 Rennell joined the East India Company's service, and was despatched on a reconnoitring expedition to Manilla. Several charts prepared by him, as the result of this duty, still exist in the India Office. In 1763 he was directed to superintend the landing of troops and stores for the siege of Madura, and for this received the thanks of Government, with a handsome present. He was shortly after appointed a Probationer Engineer and Surveyor of the East India Company's Dominions in Bengal. During his service in the Bengal Engineers, Rennell was principally engaged on Survey duties. In January, 1767, he was promoted to the rank of Captain, and made Surveyor-General. By this time he had restored to order and comparative accuracy the map of Bengal, and accumulated the material which he afterwards utilized in the first approximately correct map of India, which he compiled. During this time he had many serious adventures and hairbreadth escapes. One of these he describes in a letter dated August 3rd, 1766:—

"The next morning early we" (he and a small body of native soldiery) "pursued the Enemy" (a body of Faqueers), "and continued the pursuit till four in the afternoon, at which time two other Officers and myself went to reconnoitre a Village, altho' we hardly believed that any of the Enemy were there, and suddenly found ourselves in front of two lines of them, drawn up in the Market Place. Our Escorte of a few Horse thought it high time to retreat; but we thought it rather too late, for the enemy had drawn their Sabres, and surrounded us. One of the Officers had the good fortune to escape unhurt, another, an Engineer Officer under me (W. Richards), escaped with a slight wound after fighting his way thro'. As for myself, I was so entirely surrounded that I never expected to escape; but having the good fortune to preserve my sword, I defended myself pretty well in Front, and kept retreating backwards till I had very few behind me, when I turned and fled for it. A hardy fellow followed me close, but paid the price of his Life for it, the rest of them, thinking I was too much wounded to run far, remained

The letter from which these extracts are taken was dated, Pondicherry, 31st January, 1761."

"Grafton, off

in their Places, but kept a continual firing on me till I was out of sight; none of the Balls, however, hit me. Providence mnst have strengthened my arms whilst I was retreating, for now I found both of them deprived of their strength, and, indeed, no Wonder, for one of them was cut in three places, and the Shoulder Bone belonging to the other divided. One Stroke of a Sabre had cut my Shoulder Bone thro', and laid me open for nearly a foot down the back, wounding several of the ribs, besides a Stab in the same arm, and a large Cut in the hand, which has deprived me of the use of my forefinger."

For surgical help he had to be sent to Dacca, 300 miles off, in an open boat, which he had to direct himself as he lay on his face, whilst the natives applied a cataplasm of onions to his wounds. For a long time he was not expected to live, but eventually was restored to health by the skilful care of Dr. Russell.

He describes another serious adventure in a letter dated October 30th, 1770:

"I must not forget to tell you that about a month ago a large Leopard jumped at me, and I was fortunate enough to kill him by thrusting, my Bayonet down his Throat. Five of my men were wounded by him, four of them very dangerously. You see I am a lucky Fellow at all Times."

Rennell retired from the Engineers on April 9th, 1777, and came home. The Governor in Council allotted him a pension of 500 rupees a month, so that he should not "leave India without some certainty of support in the decline of life." This was changed by the Court of Directors into a pension of £600 a year. He was at the time only thirty-five years of age, and he continued to draw this pension for "the decline of life" for fiftythree years.

Rennell's first publication after his return to England was a "Chart of the Banks and Currents at the Laquellas in South Africa," 1778. In the same year appeared "A Description of the Roads in Bengal and Bahar," and in 1781 he published his Bengal Atlas, compiled from his original surveys. His great work on Indian geography was the "Memoirs of a Map of Hindoostan." This first drew public attention to him, and an unbroken series of important works issuing from time to time for thirty-five years raised his fame as a geographer to a pitch of European celebrity. The "Penny Cyclopædia," in an able notice of him, says:

"The merits of Major Rennell as a laborious investigator and an acute critic are universally acknowledged. Love of truth, patient and persevering research, and sound judgment, are eminently displayed in all that he did. It is a matter of surprise, with the limited means at his command, that he accomplished so much in his department of comparative Geography. His Geographical System of Herodotus is a monu

ment worthy of the writer whom he illustrated. A mere list of the works published by him during his life, or after his death by his daughter, would show the wonderful amount of labour and research bestowed upon Geographical questions by him. Till his time England could hardly be said to have possessed any great Geographer."

In an obituary notice the "Times" said :

But there was still another quality which more peculiarly marked his writings, and which cannot be too much held up for imitation the ingenuous candour with which he states the difficulties he could not vanquish, or acknowledges the happy conjectures of others. Those who have studied his Geography of Herodotus, and followed, under his guidance, the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, will have felt how much this quality augments the value of his reasoning."

When upwards of eighty-seven years of age Rennell slipped from his arm-chair and broke his thigh. He hardly left his bed again, and died March 29th, 1830. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and a tablet to his memory, with a bust, stands in the north-west angle of the nave. An excellent porcelain medallion of him was executed in Paris in 1826, and is now in the Museum at South Kensington.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL SIR RICHARD FLETCHER,
BART., K.C.H.,

was transferred from the Royal Artillery to the Royal Engineers in 1790, after two years' service in the former Regiment. In 1791 he was sent to the West Indies, where he took part in the capture of Martinique, Guadaloupe and St. Lucia, at the latter of which places he was wounded in the head. He returned to England in 1796, when he was appointed Adjutant to the Royal Military Artificers a post which he held for upwards of two years. At the end of 1798 he was ordered to the East to be employed in the dominions of the Sultan with the brevet rank of Major. He did good service in this position, and aided in constructing several works of defence in Syria. In December, 1799, he was sent with despatches to Sir Ralph Abercrombie, who was on his road to Egypt with an expeditionary force. Sir Ralph directed him to accompany Major McKerras, R.E., in a reconnoitring trip to Egypt, with a view to ascertaining the most suitable spot for the disembarkation of the army. In this work they were surprised by a French gunboat. McKerras was killed and Fletcher taken prisoner. At the termination of the campaign, after the

capture of Cairo he obtained his release, and was rewarded by the Sultan with a gold medal for his services. He returned to England in 1802, and was employed in the ordinary duties of the Corps until 1807, when he was sent with the expedition under Lord Cathcart to Copenhagen. He took part in the capture of that city, and of the Danish fleet. In 1808 he was ordered to the Peninsula, and arrived just after the battle of Vimiera, when he assumed the command of the Engineers, previously held by Major Landmann. He afterwards became Sir John Moore's Commanding Engineer during his brief advance into Spain and subsequent retreat to Corunna.

On June 21st, 1809, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in the Corps, having previously held the same rank locally. When Wellington took over the command of the army Fletcher remained as his Commanding Royal Engineer, and was engaged in all his campaigns.

In May, 1811, the Master-General of the Ordnance had represented to the Prince Regent

"the eminent and important services of Lieut.-Col. Fletcher, and particularly the arduous duties of which he had the superintendence during the late and present campaign in Spain and Portugal, in the performance of which, his zeal and ability had been equally conspicuous."

In consequence of this recommendation he received a pension of 20s. a day. In the spring of 1813 he paid a short visit to England, on leave from the army, and whilst at home was created a baronet and given the K.C.H.

His services in connection with the Lines of Torres Vedras, and the sieges of Badajoz, Ciudad Rodrigo, and San Sebastian, have been detailed in the narrative of those events. He was present at the battles of Talavera, Busaco, Sabagal, Fuentes d'Onor, and Vittoria. He made all the arrangements for the blockade of Pamplona, after which he proceeded to San Sebastian to take over the charge of the Engineer department at the siege then progressing. He was killed at the second and successful assault of the place, being shot through the heart on August 31st, 1813, at the age of 42 years. He was one of four Engineer officers buried on the hill of San Bartolomeo, at the neck connecting the promontory of San Sebastian with the mainland, the three others being Captain Rhodes, Captain Collier, and Lieutenant Machell. A monument has been erected to record the fact. Another monument, designed by E. H. Bailey, R.A., was placed in Westminster Abbey at the cost of his brother-officers.

In a letter from Sir Augustus Fraser, written immediately after Fletcher's death, he says:

"We cannot get Sir Richard's loss from our minds. Our trenches,