List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Preface; Prologue: a dinner party for Captain Cook; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Chapter 1. Foundations; Carluke: the background to a childhood; Off to school and out into the world; In Edinburgh; Chapter 2. The map-maker: developing the soldier's eye; The need for a military map of the Highlands; The specification of The Great Map; In the field; The surveyors and the draughtsmen; The Lowlands, the coast, and the relevance of antiquities; Products and results; Chapter 3. The Military Engineer: Raids, Resources and Fortifications; An Engineer in England and raids across the Channel; In Germany; The Quartermaster; South-East England and Ireland; A winter in Dunkirk; Making plans: for a national map; Supplies, logistics and advice; Invasion fears and countermeasures; Chapter 4. The antiquary in the field: empathy with the army of Rome; The long walk and the forerunners: Gordon and Horsley; The beginning of field archaeology and Captain Melville's quest; The summer of 1755: Strathmore and the Antonine Wall; The revival of a dormant passion; The forger and his trap; The 'Detached Pieces'; A legacy bequeathed; Chapter 5. The practical and sociable scientist: hypsometry and the Royal Society; A Scot in London, and an intellectual home; Hypsometry: the search for a practical rule; On Schiehallion; Greenwich and other commitments; Argyll Street; Chapter 6. The geodesist: large triangles and miniscule adjustments; International collaboration; On Hounslow Heath: an exercise in experimental physics; Fortifications, feuds, and first steps in Kent; While waiting for Ramsden: a new family; Linking Britain and France; Last days, in Lisbon and London; Chapter 7. Aftermath and legacy: the birth of the Ordnance Survey; Operations resume; Non-cartographic legacies; A name for accuracy and utility; Appendices; 1.
Chronology; 2. General Roy's Instructions on Reconnoitring; 3. Glossary; Abbreviations; Bibliographical references; Index.