notes Cobbett 1832

	Research Notes Map Group COBBETT 1832

Cobbett 1832
	Map, Hampshire, scale about 12 miles to 1 inch, by William Cobbett, published in 'A Geographical Dictionary of England and Wales by Wm. Cobbett, 11 Bolt Court, Fleet street, London, 1832. The map studied is in the Map Collection of Hampshire CC Museums Service, item HMCMS:FA1999.111.
	The atlas size is 5 1/8 x 7 1/2 ins; the map has county boundary and towns, and is very distorted.
	MAP FEATURES
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	ITEMS in the Collection

MAP FEATURES	The county boundary and towns are all the map shows.
title map maker	The map has a fairly plain title cartouche at the lower left:- HAMPSHIRE Engraved at bottom centre is:- Drawn & Engraved for Cobbett's Geographicaal Dictionary of England and Wales.
orientation north point up is N	Orientation is shown by a north point; N-S line, E-W cross line, North is marked by a fleur de lys, the other cardinal points are labelled - E, S, W. The map is printed with North at the top of the sheet, sort of. BUT the map is so distorted that the orientation is of questionable value. It is stretched on a NW-SE axis and rotated some. It is quite the worst map of Hampshire I've come across - unless it is a completely unrecognised projection! Using a computer graphics program we have tried 'undistorting' the map by linear transformations. Two transformations have been tried; bringing four perimeter towns into alignment with where they 'should' be, and matching the county boundary to 'today's real' boundary. Both processes have there limitations. Both processes leave most of the towns well out of position. I do not believe there is an projection in use which we have failed to recognise.
scale	An estimate of the scale of the map can be got from the positions of towns and comparing known town-town distances, using DISTAB.exe. The map scale is about:- 1 to 780000 12 miles to 1 inch
county	The county boundary is a continuous line.
settlements	Settlements are marked by a dot and circle.
city	city; a double circle; labelled in upright lowercase text:- Winchester

town	town; dot and circle; labeled in italic lowercase text:- Kingsclere Andover Whitchurch Stockbridge Basingstoke Odiham Alton New Alresford Romsey Bishops Waltham Petersfield Havant Fareham Gosport Portsmouth Lymington Christ Church Ringwood Southampton Fordingbridge

village	One village is marked with a dot and circle, labelled in italic lowercase text slanting across the page whereas all other place names are level. Botley is where William Cobbett had a home for many years in Hampshire.
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ADVERTISMENT
	Cobbett advertises this atlas in his Rural Rides, 1830 edition, 'A GEOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF ENGLAND AND WALES; containing the names, in Alphabetical Order, of all the Counties, with their several Subdivisions into Hundreds, Lades, Rapes, Wapentakes, Wards, or Divisions; and an Account of the Distribution of the Counties into Circuits, Dioceses, and Parliamentary Divisions. Also, the names (under that of each County respectively), in Alphabetical Order, of all the Cities, Boroughs, Market Towns, Villages, Hamlets, and Tithings, with the Distance of each from London, or from the nearest Market Town, and with the Population, and other interesting particulars relating to each; besides which there are MAPS; first, one of the whole country, showing the local situation of the Counties relatively to each other; and, then, each County is also preceded by a Map, showing, in the same manner, the local situation of the Cities, Boroughs, and Market Towns. FOUR TABLES are added; first, a Statistical Table of all the Counties; and then three Tables, showing the new Divisions and Distributions enacted by the Reform-Law of 4th June, 1832.'
	and says:- 'This book was suggested to me by my own frequent want of the information which it contains; a suggestion which, if every compiler did but wait to feel before he put his shears to work, would spare the world of many a voluminous and useless book. I am constantly receiving letters out of the country, the writers living in obscure places, but who seldom think of giving more than the name of the place they write from; and thus have I been often puzzled to death to find out even the county in which it is, before I could return an answer. I one day determined, therefore, for my own convenience, to have a list made out of every parish in the kingdom; but this being done, I found that I had still townships and hamlets to add in order to make my list complete; and when I had got the work only half done, I found it a book; and that, with the addition of bearing, and population, and distance from the next market-town, or if a market-town, from London, it would be a really useful Geographical Dictionary. It is a work which the learned would call sui generis; it prompted itself into life, and it has grown in my hands; but I will here insert the whole of the title-page, for that contains a full description of the book. It is a thick octavo volume, price 12s.'
	Published in a 2nd edition, a larger map? 1854.
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REFERENCES
	Cobbett, William: 1832 & 1854: Geographical Dictionary of England and Wales: (London)

ITEMS	in HMCMS Map Collection (scanned item in bold)
	HMCMS:FA1999.111 -- map
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