. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 395 



copied one after a,nother ; and additional misspellings and other mistakes crept 

 in as fresh ' editions ' appeared. True^ the shipping, the scroll-work, borders, 

 decorations, and dates were altered from time to time ; a map dedicated to 

 Queen Elizabeth bears a date long after that lady became an angel; and even 

 the positions and attitudes of the various grotesque sea-monsters besporting 

 themselves in the ocean were altered, but no advance was made in scientific 

 cartography as a result of these various ' new editions.' 



During the succeeding century the production of atlases and maps was 

 tremendous : partly owing to the increased interest being taken in travel and 

 exploration generally ; partly, no doubt, from improved methods of engraving 

 and printing. In this period occur maps by Seller, Lea, Morden, Moll, Blome, 

 Overton, Kitclien, Bowen, Jeffery, Ellis, Carington, Bowles, Gary, and others, 

 whose names are familiar to map collectors. Some were beautiful pieces of 

 work, decorated by views or plans of the principal towns, cathedrals, or other 

 items of interest. Many of tlie later maps bad been specially surveyed, the 

 roads were carefully portrayed, and even the smallest hamlet was indicated. 

 Of these, the work of John Gary stands out with prominence. Between 1787 and 

 1832 he produced an extraordinarily large series of maps and atlases, all excel- 

 lently ' performed.' flis work consisted of various county and road atlases, 

 while his large maps, on the scale of two miles to an inch, compare well with 

 the Ordnance Survey map of the same scale. 



Facilities for travelling between one point and another, in the way of stage 

 coaches and improved roads, resulted in the appearance of ' road-books ' of 

 various descriptions. Among the first of these was John Ogilby's ' Britannia.' 

 Tiiis consisted of details of all the items likely to be of interest to the traveller 

 being represented on scrolls, engraved parallel to each other, particulars of a 

 definite road being shown on cjie plate. At first these books were large and 

 unwieldy, but improved as time went on, and eventually were issued small 

 enough to fit the pocket. 



Road-books alone provide a wealth of information relating to the former 

 appearance of the country, and should be carefully examined by those interested 

 in the pa.'t history or geography of any particular area. Streams, bridges, hills, 

 good roads, moors, and commons, woods, and other details are given with 

 wonderful precision. Beacons, gibbets, and similar by-gones are indicated ; in 

 those days the approach to the gibbet m.eant whipping up the horses in order 

 to pass the ghastly spectacles hung in chains, with their accompanying stench, 

 as quickly as possible. In Yorkshire these books have provided minute details 

 of roads which have long since been swallowed up by the sea. Their perusal 

 therefore yields valuable facts relating to the appearance of the country before 

 it was changed by the Enclosures Acts, and all interested in coast changes, 

 the reclamation of fen and bog land, the former extent of forests, moors, and 

 commons will do well to consult them. 



The period of really reliable and accurate mapping may be said to have 

 started by the form.ation of thi Board of Ordnance, the surveying and triangu- 

 lations in connection therewith commencing in 1784, though nothing was actually 

 published until 1801, seventeen years later. This Government work prac- 

 tically stopped all private enterprise in the way of surveying and publishing 

 maps, a remarkable exception being the beautiful productions of the Greenwoods, 

 who published several fine maps, and a county atlas in 1831. Abo\it the same 

 time (between 1823 and 1835) A. Bryant surveyed and published maps of about a 

 dozen counties. These were very well done and are eagerly sought by collectors. 



From the early topographical maps illustrating coast changes and alterations 

 in the physical features of the country, and recording the occurrence of various 

 fossils and minerals, it becomes an easy process to imagine the evolution of the 

 map upon wnich rocks and soils are indicated by signs or colours. Yet, although 

 all the steps leading up to geological maps had been laid down, it was not 

 until early in the nineteenth century that William Smith produced the first 

 map upon which were definitely indicated the different rocks forming the 

 earth's surface. From his primitive hand-coloured maps, upon which he 

 ' plotted ' what he personally investigated in the field, to the colour-printed 

 geological and mineralogical maps now being issued in enormous numbers by 

 every civilised State in the world, is a line of scientific progress rarely followed. 

 Yet in few directions has the pet hobby of a scientific crank, as ' Strata Smith ' 



