A sense of place

16 Mar 2011

At a project meeting the other day, we had a very interesting discussion with Andrew Cook of the British Library, who knows about a huge range of things, including hydrography, charts and the East India Company.

One of the things Andrew was discussing was the importance of place, in particular where different groups of people met and took their decisions. This is particularly important with the Board of Longitude, which never had its own office, although there were meetings and it did have instruments and other equipment to store. This meant that meetings could take place at a range of different locations. Often they were at the Admiralty in Whitehall, which reminds me of two things I've come across. The first is a caricature from 1835 entitled *Waiting room at the Admiralty - (*no misnomer) by George Cruikshank.
 

This seems to accord rather well with a description written on behalf of John Harrison's son, William, from an account of the period of heightening tension between the Harrisons and the Board of Longitude from 1761 onwards. It gives a rather tantalising description of how Board meetings took place (or at least one view of it):
 

It may not be improper here to mention in what manner the Board always proceed. They always meet in an Appartment belonging to the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Door of the Room in which they meet is always kept Shut and nobody admitted but Commissioners so that the manner in which they do Business is entirely left to themselves, and all the information they usually have had about Mr Harrison's affair was no more than a short Memorial or Petition which was intended for nothing but as an instruction to proceed on Business; But they generally form their Resolutions from such Memorial or Petition & having done so they then call for Mr Harrison who is waiting in another Room and inform him of the Resolutions they are come to...

 
Image credit: George Cruikshank, *Waiting room at the Admiralty - (*no misnomer), published by Thomas Tegg, 1 August 1835 (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, PAD4810)