This “briefe discourse” addressed to her most excellent majesty queen Elizabeth, was written, probably about the year 1582, by that most excellent mathematician of his time, and skilful engineer, “Thomas Digges, Esquire, sonne and “ heyre of Leonard Digges, of Wotton, in the county of Kent, Esquire, and of “ Bridget his wife, daughter to Thomas Wilford, Esquire, which Thomas deceased the 24th day of August, Ann. Dom. 1595,” Stowe's Survey of London, ed. 1720, B. iii. vol. I. p. 71, 72. For a more particular account of the life of this eminent person, see Wood's Athen, and the Biograph. Britannica.