[2] In memory of John Grundy, late of Spalding, in Lincolnshire, who without the advantage of a liberal education had gained by his industry a competent knowledge in several of the learned sciences and lived by all ingenious honest men deservedly beloved and died by all such truly regretted.
[2] Grundy used a number of devices to enable him to carry out surveys, including a theodolite, a circumferentor, Beighton's improved plane table, and a Gunter's chain.
When he undertook work for the Duke of Baccleugh in 1731, surveying his south Lincolnshire estates, he used the opportunity to study banks, drains, sluices and outfalls.
Treating it in a similar way to free fall on an inclined plane, he calculated that the drop would take 1 hour and 28 minutes to cover the distance, and would thus travel at about 4 feet (1.2 m) per second.
He also tackled the science of flow through a sluice, and insisted that draining of fenland could only be achieved by accurate mapping, correct determination of levels, and detailed observations on the ground.
His conclusions met with the approval of[3] John Theophilus Desaguliers, another Fellow of the Royal Society, who advocated the application of science to engineering problems, and who wrote papers on Experimental Philosophy.
Grundy took the view that making channels narrow and deep was important, since it increased the speed at which the water moved, and therefore its scouring action.
Baseslade advocated allowing the maximum volume of water to move up and down a tidal river, and therefore opposed sluices, new cuts and the enclosing of salt marshes.
Although the debate continued long after Grundy's death, he again pioneered the use of scientific principles, using works such as Castelli's Mensuration of Running Water to support his case.
[5] Grundy continued to work on the Welland until 1746, making the channel through Spalding deeper and wider in 1744 and 1745, and carrying out other routine improvements, costing about £1,200 per year.