notes Blome 1673

	Research Notes Map Group BLOME 1673

Blome 1673
	Mapp of Hantshire, ie Hampshire, scale about 4 miles to 1 inch, by Richard Blome, probably engraved by Richard Palmer, published, London, 1673 in Blome's Geography 'Britannia'. Richard Blome was the first to finance a series of county maps by subscription.
	The maps are poorly drawn and are etchings? rather than engravings; the map of Hampshire carries the coat of arms of Charles Lord St John. The map size is: wxh, sheet = 28x34.5cm. The map studied is in the Map Collection of Hampshire CC Museums Service, item HMCMS:FA1991.9.

	MAP FEATURES
	RICHARD BLOME and his GEOGRAPHY
	DESCRIPTIVE TEXT from BLOME'S GEOGRAPHY 1673
	REFERENCES
	ITEMS in the Collection

MAP FEATURES
title plain cartouche	Printed upper left is a plain cartouche, attached to the table of hundreds:- A MAPP OF HANTSHIRE
dedication map maker engraver	Printed lower left is a dedication in a swagged cartouche:- To the Rt. Honl. Charles Ld. St. John, Son & Heire To the Rt. Honl. John Ld. Marquis of Winchester. Ld. Liuetenant of the County of Hanshire This Mapp is humbly dedicated by Ric: Blome. 'Liuetenant' is what it says. The engraving leaves something to be desired; like clarity and neatness? Text layout is not well planned, Rumsey is hidden by Toothill for instance. The map is not a delight to the eye.
coat of arms	Printed above the dedication is a coat of arms, the Paulet arms, ... three swords in pile points at base ... with a coronet above.
orientation compass rose	Printed on the left is a compass rose; circle, lines for the cardinal directions, labelled:- N E S W
scale line scale old english mile	Printed lower centre is:- A Scale of 10 Miles chequered and labelled in miles. The 10 miles = 65.1mm gives a scale 1 to 247211 on the bad assumption of a statute mile. The map scale is about:- 1 to 250000 4 miles to 1 inch A better estimate of the map scale, has been made by comparing the positions of 21 market towns on Blome's map and today. The measured average scale is:- 1 to 388167 6.13 statute miles to 1 inch
index grid	This map has no index grid. Calculations have been made to overlay the National Grid system on the map.
	For more details, and how this grid can be used compare early county maps, and to index places, see:-
	Old Hampshire Mapped
	By comparing the headings of the towns from the centroids, and averaging, it is calculated that NGR north is -8.6 degrees from map north.
	The grid references of the map borders were calculated as:- bottom left SY996801 top left SU144776 top right SU981649 bottom right SZ833674
	This could be useful to present the map in a GIS system.
sea area sea shaded sandbanks	The sea area has shading lines in places, perhaps just to make it less 'empty'. One sea area is labelled - The Solent, called:- PART OF YE BRITISH SEA South of Hayling Island is a sandbank:- The Mackett
coast line coast shaded headlands cliffs harbours	The coast is shaded, pretty crudely. The shading is taken into harbours and river mouths. Mudflat or sandbank areas are stippled, and:- A few coastal features are labelled, headlands etc, eg:- Hengist bury head Black cliffe Rames head Some harbours are labelled, eg:- Hamble haven Titchfeilde hav.
coastal defence castles	Coastal defence castles are hardly noticed. Hurst castle is missing; so is the whole of Hurst Spit! The defencs shown are:- Calshott cast S Andrews Castle Ruynes of haselworth castle South castle
rivers bridges lakes	Rivers are drawn with wiggly lines. There is little attempt to taper inland. Bariding might be suggested as shown south of Stockbridge on the Test. The rivers are not named, though many can be identified. All the major river systems are shown with some tributaries. A tributary leaves the Test near Brodlands running in from the 'west' side, slightly higher up this tributary crosses! the Test. Rivers do not do that. The Alre seems to have been added as an afterthougt. A lake is shown at Highclere park. A number of bridges are indicated, eg:- Iforde Fordingbridge etc, look carefully!
relief hillocks	Relief is suggested by hillocks, shaded to the east. Hills are grouped.
beacons	At Popham the:- Parrow Beacons are labelled, and the lumpy hill has three posts on top, as shown on earlier maps. Also labelled is:- Toothill Beacon with neither hill nor symbol.
trees forests	Trees are scattered about the map over the New Forest area. Elsewhere they are less used. A group can be seen which might be East Bere Forest. Roughly where West Bere Forest is there is a detached label:- Forrest BUCKHOLT FOREST is labelled but has no tree symbols. There are trees in some parks.
parks	Parks are shown by a ring of fence palings. Some contain trees. Few are labelled except by the house or settlement within or near.
county	The county boundary is a dashed line, emphasised by tinting. Boundaries might separate adjacent counties, which are labelled, eg:- PART OF SURRY
hundreds table of hundreds	The hundred boundaries are dotted lines. The hundred areas are linked to a reference list by numbers. Printed upper left is:- A Table of the Hundreds 1 Crundall 2 Odiam 3 Alton ... 40 Fordingbridge Hundred boundaries on the map are confused; it is not alwys possible to follow the boundary of a particular hundred, and some unnumbered areas are difficult to identify. One unnumbered area, around Alresford, is probably Alresford Liberty, not in the table of hundreds. The map colourist has been confused, and has added more confusion where colouring doesn't follow the boundaries.
settlements	Settlements are position ed by a dot and circle which has added elements to indicate size or importance. The dot is sometimes missing. The terms 'hamlet', 'village', used here are impositions of a tidy mind, not the known intentions of the map maker.
city	dot and circle plus towers and buildings; labelled in upright block caps, eg:- WINCHESTER (but not Chichester)

town	dot and circle plus 3 towers; labelled in slightly larger italic lowercase text, eg:- Andover

town	dot and circle plus towers and buildings; labelled in the same slightly larger italic lowercase text, eg:- Fareham

village	dot and circle plus tower, or tower and building; labelled in slightly smaller italic lowercase text, eg:- Littleton Whitchurch Portsey

hamlet	dot and circle, or just a circle; labelled in the slightly smaller italic lowercase text. The place name is sometimes linked to its dot by a tail on the last letter of the text, eg:- Pitt Sutton

	dot and circle plus upright line on top: unknown meaning, eg:- Minley and dot and circle with a cross on top, which is probably a sign for a religious house, or chapel, eg:- Magdalyne
	It is possible that some corrections were made after the map was first engraved; several place names have inserts, for example a 'u' is inserted in:- St Maryborn Other inserts look more like spellng corrections, an 'r' for:- Potsey Place name engraving is poor. You cannot rely on size of text to judge importance of place; some place names are crowded out by other engraving, Rumsey of example is tiny. The relationship between label and place is not always clear: it is too often unclear, but look out for an engraved line from the text towatds a symbol.
miscellaneous
mills water mills windmills	Beside the river SE of St Mary Bourne is a circle with rays which is a watermill. There is a post mill drawn on the hill NW of Chalton Although there is no symbol, a mill is labelled at the junction of the Blackwater, Whitewater, etc at the north boundary of the county:- New Mill This is probbaly the mill of that name on the Blackwater, which is now in Berkshire.
tents	tent, perhaps with a flag, eg:- SE of Winchester W of Bittern It is not clear what this is. Could it indicate a roman town - but Silchester is not marked thus ... Could it indicate a hillfort, as at St Catherine's Hill, but it's not this elsewhere ... There's probably a simple answer we've not seen.
copperas works	In the south west corner of the county there is:- Bascomb copperas house
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RICHARD BLOME	and his GEOGRAPHY
	Blome was 'a published and compiler of some celebrity, who, by the aid of subscriptions adroitly levied, issued many splendid works' but he was not regarded highly by his contemporaries. He 'scribbled and transcribed from Camden's Britannia and Speed's Maps ... gets a livelihood by bold practices ... progging tricks in employing necessitous persons to write ...'. Bishop William Nicolson, 1696, described Blome's Britannia as a 'most entire piece of theft out of Camden and Speed.' Richard Gough said it was a 'most notorious piece of plagiarism.' Looking at the map of Hampshire, Bishop Nicholson's charge of plagiarism is not as well founded as it at first appears. Judging by the place name spellings, Richard Blome used several sources, not just Camden and Speed. According to academic foklore copying from more than two sources is legitimate research rather than copying! A detail comparison with Norden, Speed, and other earlier maps might make this more clear.
	The map of Hampshire studied was published in 'Britannia: or, A Geographical Description of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with the Isles and Territories thereto belonging. And for The better perfecting the said Work, there is added an Alphabetical Table of the Names, Titles, and Seats of the Nobility and Gentry that each County of England and Wales is, or lately was, enobled with. Illustrated with a Map of each County of England, besides several General ones. The like never before Published. London, Printed by Tho. Roycroft for the Undertaker, Richard Blome. MDCLXXIII.' ie 1673. The atlas size is 5 1/2 x 10 3/4 ins.
	Published in 'Britannia: or, A Geographical Description of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with the Isles and Territories thereunto belonging. ... London, Printed for John Wright at the Crown on Ludgate-Hill. MDCLXXVII.' ie 1677.
	The 1677 edition is perhaps made up of remainder sheets acquired from Blome, with a title page by Wright; the Hampshire map is unchanged.
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DESCRIPTIVE	TEXT from BLOME'S GEOGRAPHY 1673
	There is descriptive text in the atlas "Britannia: or, A Geographical Description of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, ..." by Richard Blome, published 1673. There are pages from a broken book in the Map Collection of Hampshire CC Museums Service, items HMCMS:FA2001.11 and HMCMS:FA2002.7. The page size is: wxh, sheet = 20x32cm.
FA2002.7	The text includes an introduction 'to the reader' part of which is missing; a list of subscribers indexing the reader to engravings of their coats of arms, sales in Hampshire do not look too good; a description of the British Isles; individual descriptions of each county; descriptions of colonial territories in Africa, Asia, the Indies, and America; lists of names, titles and seats of the nobility of England and Wales.
FA2001.11	There are also five pages of descriptive text, pp.106-110 on 3 sheets, which accompanied the Map of Hampshire
	These pages have been transcribed and can be found in:-
	Old Hampshire Mapped
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REFERENCES
	Blome, Richard: 1673: Britannia & Geographical Description of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland ...: (London)
	Blome, Richard: 1677: Britannia & Geographical Description of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland ...: Wright, John (London)
	Taylor, E G R: 1937: Robert Hooke and the Cartographical Projects of the Late Seventeenth Century, 1666-1696: Geographical Journal: 90: pp.529-40
	Kennedy, C: 1958: Gentleman's Recreation, by Richard Blome: (London)
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ITEMS	in HMCMS Map Collection (scanned item in bold)
	HMCMS:FA1991.9 -- map
	HMCMS:FA1999.93 -- map
	HMCMS:FA2001.10 -- map
	HMCMS:FA2001.11 -- descriptive text
	HMCMS:FA2002.7 -- descriptive text
	HMCMS:KD1996.15 -- map
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	All Old Hampshire Mapped Resources