Map features

Bickham's Hampshire 1750

Map feature
title; printed at the top with a dedication.

Bickham was a master penman who taught lettering.
orientation; The map is a prospect facing west, ie orientated up is West.


sea shaded; with horizontal lines and decorated with ships; this map is more a prospect than it is a map.
coastal defence, castles; Two of Hampshire's coastal defence castles are drawn and labelled:-
Hurst Cast.
Calshot Castle
rivers; drawn grossly out of scale; the chief rivers are labelled, eg:-
Avon R.
relief; hills are drawn realistically, in perspective, but exagerated. The relationship between what is drawn and what is real is not worth exploring. The eminence from which the prospect is drawn, with ruin and all, is fictitious.


woods, forests; groups of trees are drawn decoratively here and there. Other vegetation, cultivated fields and hedgrows, are suggested as well in the same romantic way.




settlements; city and towns are shown by larger or smaller drawings in perspective, each a small prospect of the place, none reliable. Some are labelled:-
Petersfield, Portsmouth, Havant, Farham, Waltham, Alton, Alresford, Winchester, Whitchurch, Southampton, Stockbridge, Rumsey, Andover, Lymington, Ringwood, Fording Bridge, Christ Church, Poole.
roads; a road runs down from the vantage point in the foreground, through Havant to Winchester, then via Southampton, across the New Forset, to Christchurch and perhaps Poole. It is not drawn realistically.
road distances, distances from London; Printed at the bottom of the map sheet is a list of distances of stages on the road from London to Poole:-
From Alton to Alresford 9.5. to Winchester 3.4. to Rumsey 12.1 to Ringwood 17.5. to Pool 14. in all 56.7. from London 54 miles.
The distances are miles.furlongs; and the sum of stages from Alton to Poole is, as stated, 56.7 miles. It is not clear what is 54 miles from London.


Bickham's Hampshire 1750
General index
Old Hampshire Mapped

Map HMCMS:FA1999.77.1