The Exact Surveyor:

First and sole edition, first issue (with the author's initial only given on the title page) of this scarce surveying manual, an online search of institutional libraries records just 12 locations, and only a single complete copy shows at auction since the celebrated C. E. Kenney sales of 1965-8 (the Macclesfield copy, in later boards, Sotheby's 2004).

Richeson, in English Land Measuring to 1800 (1966), calls Eyre's book "a lucid discussion of the art of surveying written in a clear style" and mentions that he lays "more stress on the use of logarithms and on trigonometric methods than any previous author". John Eyre himself remains an obscure figure, described simply on the title page as "Practitioner in the Mathematicks". In his foreword he remarks that "it was written by the Author at his Recreative houres, for his private use, and now at the request of Friends is made publique". There was a wave of surveying manuals published at this time, in part stimulated by the colonization of Ireland, and also by the work of William Petty, who "reasserted the bond between surveying and agrarian improvement" (McRae, p. 196).

Contemporary letterpress bookseller's ticket of Abisha Brocas "bookseller in Exeter. 1674" mounted on the front pastedown, small piece removed from the corner, no loss of text; later ownership inscription of ?"C. Blanche Thornycroft, 1879" along the bottom edge.