(From Empire Survey Review, October, 1932, reprinted in Association of Field Engineers, U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey Bulletin December 1932)

An Ordnance Survey triangulation party composed of a sergeant and sapper, out on a small job the other day, managed to extricate themselves from a tight corner rather neatly. Now, it is the usual custom of the Ordnance Survey to obtain permission from the farmer or occupier of land before starting digging or other operations upon it; nut, as this takes up much time, there is a tendency on small jobs to "chance it." The digging was proceeding merrily when the farmer appeared on the horizon in the devil of a temper. The sergeant, however, had got wind of the wrath to come. When the farmer was within earshot, the sergeant’s supposititious feelings found vent, volubly frequent and painfully free, more or less in the following language: "I wish the blankety fools who sent me on this blankety job were in blank; fancy the blighters expecting me to find a blankety brick that was blankety well planted here about the time of the blankety Flood!’ This inflammatory soliloquy somewhat took the wind out of the old man’s sails. Not only did it succeed in turning away wrath, but it even created a sympathy so keen that he forthwith peeled off his coat and gave the party a hand with the digging. He actually managed to find the brick himself and was so elated with his success that he invited them over to the farmhouse for a mug of ale.