The gentlemans recreation in two parts : the first being an encyclopedy of the arts and sciences ... the second part treats of horsmanship, hawking, hunting, fowling, fishing, and agriculture : with a short treatise of cock-fighting ... : all which are collected from the most authentick authors, and the many gross errors therein corrected, with great enlargements ... : and for the better explanation thereof, great variety of useful sculptures, as nets, traps, engines, &c. are added for the taking of beasts, fowl and fish : not hitherto published by any : the whole illustrated with about an hundred ornamental and useful sculptures engraven in copper, relating to the several subjects.

The Method of Monsieur * * * Plate 1. Fi∣gure 3.

HAving shewed the several ways, and Rules for laying the fundamental ground Lines, according to the most considerable Engineers of this last Age, I shall end this Chapter by giving an Account of the Method used by a famous En∣gineer Mounsieur * * * in the building of seve∣ral Fortifications beyond Seas, the which I suppose from the Advantages that attend it will commend it self.

You are to take the Interior Polygone of 720 Feet, or 60 Rods, (allowing 12 Feet to a Rod) according to the second Maxim the Point Blank that a Musket doth Execution; a fifth part of this you are to set off for the Demi-Gorges, which is 12 Rods, or 144 Feet; a sixth part to the Flank, viz. 10 Rods or 120 Feet; these two together, viz. 22 Rods or 264 Feet for the Capital, there remains 36 Rods, or 432 Feet for the Curtain. See the Figure.

The Reason why I give a 1/5 part of the Interior Polygone to the Demi-Gorge, is; First, That the Line of Defence may never exceed the Port of a Musquet, which would happen, if I did but give a 1/6 part. Secondly, The Gorge being too short, the Point of the Bastion would become too sharp, or the Capital too short, and by consequence the Bastion too little: This proportion is the best for the Pentagone, Hexagone, and Heptagone, because by these Figures we cannot have the Flanks greater, or the Defence better. But for the Octo∣gone, 9, 10, 11, and 12 sided Figures, the follow∣ing Method is much better. There is given to the Face 29 Rods, to the Flanks 12, and to the Curtain 36. The Point of the Bastion is 90 De∣grees, then the other parts, viz. the Demi-Gorge, the Capitals, the Polygone interior and exterior are found by calculating and forming Trian∣gles.

This Method for these Figures is much the better, because the Flanks become greater, and the Angle of the Polygon is greater, the Gorges become greater, the interior Polygone longer, and conse∣quently a great deal of more Ground inclosed, than according to the first Method of Fortifying.

The Flanks ought to be perpendicular to the Curtain, or very near it, to the end the Enemy may not make Batteries afar off, but be obliged to make them to rume the Flanks just under the Besiegers Fire, which will cost them much blood and pain; and the reason is evident: For in bring∣ing them to fall perpendicular to the Line of Defence, the Flanks are too much exposed to the Enemy, and so discovered to the Campaign, that the Enemy finds all advantages imaginable to raise many Batteries afar off to batter and ruine the Flanks with their Cannon, which is an Enemies chief Design in a Siege, that they may the easier approach the Town, and pass the Ditch. That the design of the Flanks are chiefly to scour the

Ditch and Counterscarp, to hinder the Enemy to pass their Gallery, and make a Lodgement, the which seems very reasonable, seeing the Guns from the Faces of the Bastions and Curtain, scours the Campaign more directly than the Guns from the Flanks; and tis' found by the account of Sieges that an Enemy advanceth in a little time very securely in their Trenches to the Counterscarp; wherfore if the Guns be still mounted on the Flanks, to discover them at their breaking the [ 10] Scap, and that one or two Batteries at most can be raised to dismount them, and that in so dan∣gerous a Post too, to be under the Besiegers Fire, it is certaily an advantage not to be found when the Flanks fall perpendicular on the Lines of Defence.