Maps of Wales haven’t featured very highly in this blog, in fact the only real mention is the Snowdonia and North Wales Ramblers Guide. So, to put this right, the Map of the Month for August 2010 has two maps of Wales.
This Map(s) of the Month compares the highly illustrated, colourful John Speed, Wales 1610 with the more serious and functional map from The Century Atlas & Gazetteer of the World 1890, published by John Walker and Co. with maps by John Bartholomew. The text was written by Roger Pountain for the forthcoming Times Atlas of Britain.
Click on the maps to enlarge
John Speed, Wales 1610.......................Century Atlas & Gazetteer of the World 1890
There is a striking contrast between the appearance and design of these two maps, dating from 1610 and 1890 – although here, as in the rest of the UK, the traditional county boundaries scarcely changed in the meantime. The older map seems to be attempting more detail, especially as regards place names, though this is misleading because the right-hand map is actually an enlarged version of Bartholomew’s original.
The more recent map is true to its era in being more earnest and factual, while the older preference is to throw in some entertainment and information value, with tiny aerial views of the cathedrals of Wales, heraldic shields, and a decorative compass rose and a ship. Monstrous sea life leaps out of the dramatically hachured water, which must have been extremely tedious to engrave. On land, there are some frankly rather overblown hill illustrations – Plynlimon, which in reality has a low profile, looks more like the Matterhorn, though the artist had presumably seen a picture of Snowdon.
County names have remained unchanged even to the present day, with a few exceptions. Brecknock (usually Brecon in more recent times) is on both maps, Speed spelling it Breknokshire. The 19th-century map has Carnarvon (it reverted to the more correct spelling Caernarfon in the 20th century), while the older map has the less common ‘Carnarvan’ and gives Pembrokeshire as ‘Penbrokshire’.
John Speed’s name is on the bottom of the 17th century map, and one wonders if he or his staff just forgot to colour in the boundary between Radnor and ‘Breknokshire’.
Roger Pountain, Senior Information Analyst, Collins Geo
The Times Atlas of Britain
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