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Settlements
Blome's Hampshire 1673 |
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Settlements are positioned on Blome's map by a dot and circle
with added elements to indicate size or importance. The dot is
sometimes missing. The terms 'hamlet', 'village', used here are
the impositions of a tidy mind, not the known intentions of the
map maker.
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city; dot and circle plus towers and buildings; labelled in upright block caps, eg:-
WINCHESTER
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town; dot and circle plus 3 towers; labelled in slightly larger italic lowercase text, eg:-
Andover
Fareham
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village; dot and circle plus tower, or tower and building; labelled in slightly smaller italic lowercase text, eg:-
Littleton
Whitchurch
Portsey
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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
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?; dot and circle plus upright line on top: unknown meaning, example see:-
Minley
The usage seems to agree with John Speed, 1611.
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religious house?; dot and circle with a cross on top, which is probably a sign for a religious house, or chapel, eg:-
Magdalyne
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| placenames |
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. Blaeu appears
to be another source. 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. 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
The placename 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 for example is tiny. The relationship
between label and place is not always clear: but look out for an engraved line from the text towards a symbol.
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