Lot 125: RENNIE (JOHN)

Autograph letter signed ("John Rennie"), to Sir Joseph Banks PRS ("My Dear Sir Joseph"), discussing the drainage of the Fens and their overall ecology ("...The advantages of Fen creeks in keeping an outfall open are undoubted... These Creeks are neither more nor less than interior Reservoirs or receptacles for Tide water... Fen creeks are very properly obscure, not the Invention of the Romans; but arise from Natural Causes, probably however the Romans understood the value of these in keeping outfalls open better than Engineers of Modern days, -- the great value that has of late years been put on Land gained from the Sea, has probably Occasioned the shutting up of more of them than has been prudent..."); and announcing his departure for Boston, 3 pages, docket by Banks, trace of guard, 4to, Stamford Street, 31 December 1805

Rennie was involved in extensive drainage operations in the Lincolnshire Fens, while Banks owned a considerable estate at Revesby Abbey, near Boston. This letter is not recorded in The Banks Letters (1958), edited by Warren R. Dawson; where other letters by Rennie to Banks, now in the National Library of Scotland, are printed.