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CHAPTER V. 
BRITISH TOPOGRAPHY : 
AND 
ANTIQUITIES. 
THE publications that belong to this department of our work, are considetably _ 
more numerous than those which were noticed in the corresponding chapter of our 
former volume; in merit and originality, however, they are decidedly inferior. 
During the short interval of peace, many of our tourists were no doubt attracted — 
to Paris; and on the recommencement of hostilities, with the expectation of immi- 
nent invasion, were probably occupied by more serious concerns than rambling 
about the country, in quest of picturesque scenery or sentimental adventures. 
Prudential motives, induced by the same lamentable event, have, in all likelihood, 
suspended the publication of some of the more expensive works in Topography — 
and Antiquities, which, requiring the illustration of maps and plates, cannot be I 
expected to be carried on with spirit during the transition from a state of public 3 
tranquillity, and private adventure, to one of private economy and public hazard. — 
Instead, therefore, of giving a general sketch of the topographical and antiquarian . 
works which have issued.from the British press during the last year, and which 
will be amply noticed in the following articles, we shall take the liberty of offering 
a few remarks on the present state of British topography. 
As geography, strictly speaking, means only a description of the great natural 
features of the earth, and its principal civil divisions, so topography, treating of a” 
particular country, or county, or hundred, or parish, ought properly to be confined | 
to a more minute investigation of the same general subjects. Hence it is impossible, } 
by definition, to distinguish the one from the other of these branches of knowledge,” 
and there are many publications which may, with almost equal propriety, be de-~ 
nominated minute geographies, or general topographies: of which Biisching’s . 
Geography of Germany is a striking foreign example, and the ‘ Beauties of Enel 
land and Wales’? is a domestic instance. While the geographer describes the 
courses of the great rivers and of the principal chains of mountains, indicates the 
leading territorial divisions, and points out the situation of the most remarkable 
towns and cities; the topographer follows the meandering of the smaller streams _ 
and their tributary brooks, marks the minuter undulations in the surface of the 
soil, traces parish boundaries, and ascertains the position of villages and hamlets, 
of castles, cathedrals, and manor houses. Pure geography, however, to most 
persons, is but a dull study, and, in consequence, the generality of modern writers 
on this subject have incorporated into their works various particulars relative ta 
the natural, political, civil, and statistical history of the countries described. 
Pure topography, treating of the same subjects, but with much greater minute- z 
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