Research Notes


Map Group BOWLES 1782
Bowles 1782
Road book, Bowles's Post Chaise Companion, including road strip maps with sections in Hampshire, scale about 3 miles to 1 inch, derived from maps by Ogilby, 1675, published by Carington Bowles, London, 1781-1782.

The map feature notes are taken from pages 103/104 in volume 2, item HMCMS:FA1998.300 in the Map Collection of Hampshire CC Museum Service. The sheet has 6 strips covering two routes, the same as Ogilby plate 51.
The map size is: wxh, sheet = 167x156mm; wxh, page = 84x156mm; wxh, plate = 162x138mm approx.
Additional notes and scans of maps missing from the Hampshire CC Museum Service Map Collection are made from a complete road book in a private collection.
MAP FEATURES on P.103-104
STRIP MAP SCALE from P.103-104
POST CHAISE COMPANION 1782
ALL ROUTES in HAMPSHIRE
REFERENCES
ITEMS in the Collection
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MAP FEATURES
title cartouche    
title    
map maker    
road distances    
A simple title cartouche is printed up the left side of the sheet:-
BOWLES'S POST-CHAISE COMPANION
Down the right side is:-
London: Published 2 Jany. 1782.
Printed at the top of each route is a plain cartouche with the title of the route and a table of distances:-
image snip from map
LONDON to Southampton.
To Bagshot 26
Farnham 12
Alton 9
Alresford 10
Twyford 8 1/2
Southampton 9 1/2
The second route is:-
SOUTHAMPTON to SALISBURY
Rumsey 8 1/2
Salisbury 17
orientation    
north point    
up is destination    
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 3 mile 62-63)
The orientation of each strip is given by a north point; NS line and an EW line, North marked by a spear point, East marked by a cross.
The strips read upwards away from London. For the London to Southampton route from Bagshot up the sheet is south and south west, from Southampton to Salisbury up the sheet is north west.

scale    
The maps have no scale line. The scale can be estimated by measuring along the roads which are marked each mile by a spot. Detail measurements are given below. The scale is about:-
1 to 180000
3 miles to 1 inch
(The estimated scale from another sheet is 1 to 170000.)

sea area    
sea plain    
(page 103/104 scroll 4 mile 75)
The small amount of sea, at Southampton, is plain, labelled:-
The Sea
coast line    
coast form lines    
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 4 mile 75)
There are coast form lines which extend into river mouths.

rivers    
bridges    
ferries    
ponds    
Rivers are shown as wiggly lines, tapering in from their mouth. Most rivers are shown just as they cross the road, but the Wey and Itchen are shown alongside the road. Some rivers are labelled:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 3 mile 58)
Sewers Water
Itchin R.
As the course of a whole river is generally not shown braiding is not clearly depicted, but it is suggested just east of Salisbury by multiple crossings of a river.
Bridges are suggested, by not drawn, where the road crosses and interupts a river. Example where Sewers Water crosses west of New Alresford. A bridge might be labelled, eg:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 4 mile 68)
High Br.
near Otterbourne.
East of New Alresford is:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 3 mile 56-57)
a Pond
Notice how one branch of the river goes under a bridge and the other suggests a ford - which follows earlier road mapping.
At Southampton, over the Itchen, is:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 4 mile 75)
the Ferry
indicated just by the label, but notice the approach road from Southampton.

mills    
water mills    
windmills    
A number of mills are shown on the map
Water mills are shown by a circle with rays, eg:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 2 mile 40)
Mill
Paper Mill
both near the Hampshire/Surrey border at mile 40-41 from London.
Windmills are shown by a drawing of a post mill, eg at Alton:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 2 mile 47)

relief    
hill hachuring    
Relief is not much shown on these roads. There is a little hachuring beside the road, eg:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 2 mile 43-44)
at Froyle which suggest it is on a hill top.
A label might also suggest an upland route:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 3 mile 61)
Longwood Down
woods    
trees    
Woods are indicated by groups of trees, usually with dotted line suggesting ground vegetation. A group of trees might be labelled, eg:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 5 mile 5-7)
Austrey Wood
Trees are also drawn in parks.

parks    
Parks are shown by a ring of fance palings, the one example is near Salisbury, Wiltshire, labelled:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 6 mile 22)
Clarendon Park
whose fence is incomplete, just the parts near the road shown.

county    
County boundaries are shown by a dotted line. The county name is labelled in block caps alongside each piece of road.

settlements    
streets    
Settlements along the road are shown by clusters of square blocks (well, rectangular). These are placed along the road, or might suggest a street plan. Off the road there are little drawings of a church, or a house. It is not easy to distinguish what size of settlement is intended; the group of blocks is denser and bigger for bigger places, but the relationship is not formalised. The absence of presencce of a church alongside blocks cannot be used as a guide.
city     Same as a town; but upright block caps text. Eg:-
SALISBURY
Southampton is not shown as a city.

town     Larger cluster of square blocks, perhaps making a street plan; lowercase upright text, eg:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 5 mile 8)
Rumsey
village    
hamlet     		Just a cluster of square blocks along the road; labelled in lowercase italic text.
Places, of any size, off the road are mostly indicated by a label at the road junction, eg:-
to Winchester
Some villages/hamlets not far from the route are shown by a drawing of a church, and labelled, eg:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 3 mile 59)
Ovington

roads    
distances from London    
road distances    
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 3 mile 53)
Roads are the defining element of these maps. Roads are drawn by a double line; this might be dotted, presumably indicating an unfenced road, for example across Longwood Down.
Junctions are clearly marked and labelled with the place they go to, eg:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 3 mile 58-59)
to Sutton
Smaller roads might be shown by a single dotted line running to a nearby settlement, eg:-
image snip from map
(page 103/104 scroll 2 mile 44)
two side roads leading towards Binsted.
An alternative route is occasionally shown, for example west of Romsey from mile 9 there is a 'short cut' of unfenced road across the heath.
The distance from the staring point of the route are marked alongside spots drawn in the road. These are often distances from London, measured from there, not from the start of the part of the route on the sheet. Distances from town to town are listed at the top of the sheet (already described).

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STRIP MAP SCALE I would not usually use so much time to estimate the scale of one of this sort of road map. The exercise is as much to test the idea, its accuracy, as anything else.
The distance from mile spot to mile spot was measured all along the strips, except where the road had a serious bend which invalidated the measurement. Readings from the 6 strips, mm:-
8.0 9.0 8.3 8.2 9.5 7.9
9.2 9.6 8.4 9.1 8.6 8.6
9.9 9.4 7.7 9.5 9.6 8.8
8.3 9.0 8.0 8.2 8.0 9.1
8.0 8.7 8.0 8.9 9.0 8.1
8.8 7.7 11.3 9.0 11.1 7.6
9.7 11.6 10.9 8.6 8.2 9.8
9.5 9.3 8.2 8.8 8.9 9.8
7.9 9.0 8.9 8.0    
9.0   8.9      
8.2   7.4      
8.7          
totals          
105.2 83.3 96.0 78.3 72.9 69.7
TOTAL 505.4mm = 57 miles
1 mile = 8.87mm +-.3% estimated error
scale 1 to 181505 or 2.86 miles to 1 inch
Respecting the errors the map scale is:-
1 to 182000 ?
3 miles to 1 inch
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POST CHAISE COMPANION 1782

Title Page

The road book title page, volume 1, early edition reads:-
BOWLES's Post-Chaise Companion; OR, TRAVELLERS DIRECTORY THROUGH ENGLAND and WALES: BEING AN ACTUAL SURVEY OF ALL THE Principal, Direct, and Cross-Roads, both Ancient and Modern; WITH THE DISTANCES expressed in single Miles according to Measurement: Exhibting the several TOWNS, VILLAGES, POST-STAGES, &c. ON OR NEAR THE ROADS; Together with the Circuits of the Judges, and an exact Alphabetical LIST of all the FAIRS, as settled since the Alteration of the Style. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: Printed for the Proprietor CARINGTON BOWLES, At his MAP and PRINT WAREHOUSE, No.69, St. Paul's Church Yard.
The road book has indexes; volume 1 page i is headed:-
INDEX to the ROADS FROM LONDON. To all the CITIES, TOWNS, and Remarkable VILLAGES SITUATED upon the DIRECT ROADS OF ENGLAND and WALES. [image of a hand] The First Column contains the Name of the Place; the Second, the County it lies in; the Third, its Market Days; and the Fourth, the Page in which the Road is to be found.

Index
The index has entries on the pattern:-
Alresford   Hants Th. 103
Alton   Hants Sat. 103
Andover   Hants Sat. 46
Basingstoke   Hants We. 45

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ALL ROUTES in HAMPSHIRE
The strip maps are printed on one side only, folded, and pasted to a guard strip in the book; each map has two page numbers, printed at top left and right of the sheet. Plates concerning Hampshire are listed below, pages to 112 in vol.1, pages 113 onwards in vol.2 of the 1st edition. The volume break occurs at p.99/100 / p.101/102 in the 2nd edition which has more maps
Route diagram:-


page 45/46    
from London; through Staines, Middlesex; Bagshot, Surrey; then Basingstoke, Whitchurch, and Andover, Hampshire; past 'Lobcocks Corner' to Salisbury, Wiltshire, and westwards.
(compare Ogilby plates 25, 26 )

page 57/58    
from London; through Kingston, Guildford, and Godalming, Surrey; then Liphook, Petersfield, Horndean, Cosham, to Portsmouth, Hampshire.
(compare Ogilby plate 30)

page 61/62    
from Andover, Hampshire; to Amesbury, Warminster, Wiltshire; then Bruton to Bridgewater, Somerset.
(compare Ogilby plate 32)

page 77/78    
from Guildford, through Godalming, Surrey; then Midhurst to Chichester, West Sussex.
from Midhurst, West Sussex; through Petersfield, to Winchester, Hampshire.
(compare Ogilby plate 39)

page 93/94    
from Alresford to Winchester, Romsey, and Ringwood, Hampshire; and on to Poole, Dorset.
from Poole to Christchurch, Dorset; then to Lymington, Hampshire.
from Southampton to Winchester, Hampshire.
(compare Ogilby plate 97)

page 103/104    
from Bagshot, Surrey; cross a corner of Hampshire; to Farnham, Surrey; via Alton, New Alresford, Twyford, to Southampton, Hampshire.
from Southampton, through Romsey, Hampshire; to Salisbury, Wiltshire.
(compare Ogilby plate 51)

page 109/110    
from Basingstoke to Sutton Scotney, and Stockbridge, Hampshire; then Downton, Wiltshire; and Cranborne, Blandford, Dorchester to Weymouth, Dorset.
(compare Ogilby plate 53)

page 167/168    
from Oxford, Oxfordshire; to Newbury, Berkshire; then Kingsclere, Basingstoke, Alton, and Petersfield, Hampshire; to Chichester, West Sussex.
(compare Ogilby plate 81)

page 171/172    
from Oxford, Oxfordshire; to Hungerford, Berkshire; across a corner of Hampshire at South Tidworth and Shipton Bellinger; to Salisbury, Wiltshire; on to Cranborne, Wimborne and Poole, Dorset.
(compare Ogilby plate 83)

page 195/196    
from Canterbury to Margate, Kent.
from Hitchin to Bedford, Bedfordshire.
from Stockbridge, past the Wallops, Hampshire; to Salisbury, Wiltshire; then on past Blandford, Dorset.

page 197/198    
a road to Dorchester then Bridport, Dorset; on to Axminster, Somseset.
from Alton, via Filmore Hill, to Wickham, Fareham, and Gosport, Hampshire.
from Truro to Falmouth, Cornwall.

The later plates are 'new' routes; from Stockbridge to Salisbury, and the new road to Gosport.
The maps are from the same plates as those published by Kitchin 1771; Bowles has added a brief itinerary at the top of each plate, volume number and a footer about turnings etc, and plate numbers.
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REFERENCES
Bowles, Carington: 1782: Bowles's Post Chaise Companion & Travellers Directory through England and Wales: (London)
also see:- 
  related map group -- Ogilby 1675
  related map group -- Kitchin 1771
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ITEMS  in HMCMS Map Collection and Private Collections   (scanned item in bold)
  HMCMS:FA1998.300 -- strip map (vol.2 p.103/104)
  HMCMS:FA1999.121 -- strip map (vol.1 p.78)
  HMCMS:FA2000.51 -- strip map (vol.1 p.57/58)
  HMCMS:FA2000.52 -- strip map (vol.1 p.93/94)
  HMCMS:FA2000.54 -- strip map (vol.2 p.167/168)
  HMCMS:FA2000.55 -- title page
  HMCMS:FA2001.137 -- strip map (vol.2 p.171/172)
  private collection (14) -- map
  private collection (34) -- road book
  private collection (34_45) -- strip map (p.45/46)
  private collection (34_61) -- strip map (p.61/62)
  private collection (34_109) -- strip map (p.109/110)
  private collection (34_195) -- strip map (p.195/196)
  private collection (34_197) -- strip map (p.197/198)
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   All Old Hampshire Mapped Resources