STUKELEY (WILLIAM) – COUNTY SURVEYS Fourteen leaves of original drawings by antiquarian, natural philosopher and Fellow of the Royal Society William Stukeley (1687-1765), primarily relating to his surveys of Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, and Nottinghamshire, and his Stukeley ancestry, some depicting now lost architecture, comprising: i) Hertfordshire: "Abbot Ramryges Tomb St. Albans", annotated with notes on the hospital of St Mary de Pre "for infirm women" and "Gorhambury Sr. Nich. Bacons Mannr"; plan showing the original layout of monumental brasses at St Albans, titled "St. Albans choir floor"; brass of Sir Anthony Grey titled "a brass in St. Alban's Choir", verso with line map depicting the topography of Verulamium and the mediaeval town; The Waxhouse Gate "The Gate house next the Market. St. Albans", [1722]; Frontage of Old Gorhambury House and gatehouse, sketched amidst Stukeley's notes on the ancient Britons, verso with further notes on the Britons in English and Latin ii) Lincolnshire: Ground plan of Kirkstead Abbey, Lincolnshire, titled "Kirksted Abby Ground Plott"; The Refectory at Tupholme Abbey; Tide Tables for the Lincolnshire Wash, verso with notes on the topography and history of the area around the Wash; drawing of a conservatory, possibly for his garden in Grantham iii) Stukeley Ancestry: St Bartholomew's Church, Great Stukeley, Cambridgeshire, titled "Great Stucle Church" and dated "20 August 1720", with note on the weather "Fair for [...] seinight/ 28 Aug", inverted note on the S.E. window ("... a Man kneeling & a label with Johannes de Gadesden. The family of the Meads buryed there this 300 years..."), verso bearing a 10-line fragment of notes on the Stukeley family, [August 1720]; "A Brass in Great Stukeley... said to be Sr Wm Stukeley I rather believe Sr Nichas", verso bearing 11 line note on opiates, in Latin, [9 July 1721]; coloured depiction of the Stukeley family coat-of-arms, depicting a double-headed eagle denoting the Lincolnshire branch of the family iv) Others: Sir John Vanburgh's Kensington Palace Water Tower, title in Latin beneath, adjacent to a line drawing of an arum lily ("aron persicum"), verso with additional botanical notes on Clematis and Syringa, citing a work by John Parkinson; "The Cross at Willughby [sic] on the Wold" dated "Sept 7 1722" with note "5 yds high", verso with notes on the town, 14 leaves, pen, ink, pencil and wash, dust-staining and discolouration, small tears and holes, some edges frayed, some professional conservation, 190 x 125mm. and smaller, [1720's] (14) DRAWINGS FROM STUKELEY'S HERTFORDSHIRE TOUR AND HIS LINCOLNSHIRE HERITAGE. Stukeley's survey of the buildings and curiosities of Britain was published as Itinerarium curiosum, or, An account of the antiquitys and remarkable curiositys in nature or art, observ'd in travels thro' Great Brittan in 1724. This group includes sketches from the Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire leg of his travels, several of which form an important record of buildings now lost. Waxhouse Gate in St Albans, on the main thoroughfare between the abbey and the town, for example, was demolished in 1722, shortly after Stukeley's drawing, and rebuilt as a shop. Similarly, Old Gorhambury House, once an impressive estate built by Sir Nicholas Bacon in the 1560's that was visited several times by Elizabeth I, was dismantled in the 1770's and 1780's. Later historical engravings thus depict Old Gorhambury in a state of decay or as a ruin whilst Stukeley's depiction gives some sense of its former glory. Images of Vanbrugh's water tower at Kensington Palace are also rare. In disuse by the 1820's, it was demolished in 1850. The sketches are drawn on various pages torn from sketchbooks or written on the reverse of other writings, writings that reflect his diverse interests in ancient English history, botany and medicine. His visits to the Cambridgeshire church of Great Stukeley are recorded here, and the coloured armorial depicts the arms of the Lincolnshire branch of the Stukeley family from which he was descended.