Samuel Holland, Esquire, Servant of the Crown

THERE was also a fine brass horizontal dial fixed on a post in the President's yard, which cost ten guineas, and was given by Col. Samuel Holland, Surveyor-General of the sea-coast in the Northwest District." Such were the words which Dr. Jeremy Belknap, celebrated! historian and author of a remarkable "History of New Hamp- shire," entered in his diaryin August, 1874, while he was visiting Eleazar Wheelock and his struggling college on the Hanover plain. The recent appearance of the Holland sun-dial, relegated for many years to comparative obscurity in Shattuck Observatory, brings into prominence one who played an important part in the pre-Revolutionary days of the Royal Province of New Hampshire.

During the year 1769, George 3rd., desiring to secure accurate and complete information about his possessions in America, commissioned Samuel Holland to survey "His Majesty's dominions in America as far west as the Mississippi and as far south as the Potomac River." Finding time on his hands during the winter of 1770-71 Holland expressed his willingness to survey and map a portion of the Province of New Hampshire, then governed by progressive and able John Wentworth. Such a map was greatly needed for the one or two maps which were'in existence were not only poorly drawn but hopelessly inaccurate. The Governor urged, the Assembly demurred,'and it was only after a year of lobbying which was marked by much diplomacy and many threats on the part of the Governor that the modest sum of 100 guineas was voted to defray the expenses of Holland and his deputies. Lawrence Shaw Mayo, Wentworth's biographer, makes the following comment on the outcome of the enterprise:—"The resulting map is a joy to the eye, and also a source of abundant information to the antiquarian and the historian. Its beauty is equalled only by the accuracy of its detail, and when one compares the Holla»d Map with its amateurish predecessors one stands amazed at the science and art of the generous Captain. Owing to the Revolution, the work was not published until 1784. Then it was engraved in London by the direction and at the expense of Paul Wentworth, an intimate friend of the Governor. Happy indeed is the collector whose treasures include a copy of this map."

There are but few facts available concerning Samuel Holland's relationship with Dartmouth College and her first president. Although it is entirely probable that in the course of his labors in surveying, measuring and recording the Connecticut River region and the lands about Hanover Captain Holland had frequent meetings with Eleazar Wheelock there is little information available on the subject. Governor Went worth in his reply to the invitation to visit the College at the time of the second Commencement on August 26, 1772, mentions the "Honorable Samuel Holland, Esq., Surveyor-General of the Northern District of America and a Councillor of Canada," as one of the party who would accompany him from Portsmouth for the occasion. That Captain Holland joined the adventurous and picturesque band who journeyed through the wilderness over the newly constructed Wolfboro Road on horseback to take part in the festivities of the commencement season and to lend dignity and distinction to the occasion, seems to be a certainty. And it is not unreasonable to suppose that the sun-dial was given to the College as a token of appreciation for the hospitality and kindness of Eleazar and his associates, just as in the year previous, after the first commencement party, Governor Wentworth and his companions presented to "Rev'd Eleazar Wheelock, D.D., and to his successors in that office," the sterling silver punch bowl which has come down the generations and which now rests in the custody of President Ernest M. Hopkins.

Whatever may have been the reason behind the gift certain facts are known about the dial. On its face, which is in perfect condition, appears an inscription which shows Heath & Wing of London to be the makers and that scale and markings were designed for Latitude 43° 38', not quite accurate for Hanover and more nearly the latitude of Lebanon, N. H. Although the date given on the dial is 1773, it was not until the meeting of the Board of Trustees on August 24, 1774, that the following vote of thanks was recorded in the minutes:— "Voted and Resolved that the thanks of this Board be given to the honorable Samuel Holland, Esqr, Surveyor General of the Sea Coasts in the Northern District in North America for his generous Donation of a large and valuable Dial to this College and that the Clerk be directed to write him a Letter in the name of this Board expressive of our grateful Sentiments for the same."

THE HOLLAND SUN-DIAL

AN EARLY BASEBALL TEAM As in the case of most of these old photos the editor will welcome identification. The uniforms of this team suggest respectively, the opera Faust, Sing Sing Prison, Sandow the Strong Man, High Hat Harry, Away to Hare and Hounds, and Copernicus Inventing the Telescope.