A large George 3rd, four draw telescope measuring 11.5″ (closed) and 41.5″ when fully open with an achromatic main lens aperture of just over 2″. The first draw is engraved, ‘Presented to The Rev.d Owen Manning by the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Midleton, 1768′, with an engraved crown with an eagle and plumage feathers. Also engraved, ‘Dollond, London’,  and ‘ Repaired by Dollond Sept 6th 1921’. The same crest is engraved to the lens cap along with the name, ‘Charles Augustus Manning‘.

The double glass main lens has a tiny ‘oyster’ chip to the edge of one of them. The barrel is leather covered.

 

The telescope gives an excellent clear view with strong magnification.

 

Alan Brodrick was 1st Viscount Midleton, in Midleton, County Cork, who in 1717 was Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Speaker of the House. His Grandson, George Brodrick, 4th Viscount Midleton, sat for Whitchurch in the House of Commons and was created Baron Brodrick of Peper Harrow in the County of Surrey, in the Peerage of Great Britain. The ancestral seat of the Brodrick family was Peper Harrow and its final form was commissioned by the third Viscount, near Godalming, Surrey.

 

The Reverend Owen Manning FSA (1721 – 1801) was a clergyman and antiquarian, known as a historian of Surrey. He made various engravings for for the book, ‘The History and Antiquities of Surrey’ which included illustrations of Peper Harrow, engraved at the expense of the Rt. Hon. George Lord Viscount Midleton. It would appear this fine telescope was a gift in the form of a “thankyou”.

 

The name of Charles Augustus Manning (to the lens cap) is an ancestor of Owen Manning.

 

Peper Harrow was a large estate which the Brodricks owned for over 200 years. It dates back to the Domesday book with the large house now a private residence.

 

The telescope was most likely the work of Peter & John Dollond (partnership 1766 – 1804), 59 St. Pauls Churchyard, London, though they both had seperate businesses at this time.