title cartouche, coat of arms,
and map maker
Saxton's Hampshire 1575
cartouche
The title of the map is in a strapwork cartouche decorated with fruit and flowers. It is surmounted by the royal coat of arms. The title reads:-
SOUT / HAMTONIAE. / Comitatus (preter Insulas / Vectis, Jersey, et Garnsey, / quae sunt partes eiusdem / comitatus) cum suis undiqe / confinibus; Oppidis; pagis; / Villis; et fluminibus; / Vera descriptio:
A secondary cartouche, decorated with a rams head has the title again:-
SOUTHAMTONIAE / Commitatus preter Civitatem / Wincestriam habet Oppida, me / rcatoriae 18 pagos et villas 248
Notes about cartouches.
arms
Above the title cartouche are the arms of Elizabeth I:-
quarterly, 1 and 4 azure three fleur de lys argent, 2 and 3 gules three lions passant guardant orand mottoes:-
DIEU ET MON DROYTand:-
HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSEThe supporters are a crowned lion and a dragon; this is one of the few periods when the welsh dragon is included with the royal arms.
Lower right on the map are the arms of Thomas Seckford, Master of Requests, who was Saxton's direct patron under Elizabeth I. His family motto was: Win't and Wear't, but two other mottoes appear on Saxton's series of maps. Before 1576, thus on this map, it is:-
PESTIS PATRIAE PIGRICIESperhaps: sloth is a country's bane, which is indirect praise of Saxton's labours which were most surely not slothful.
In later maps, other counties, from 1576 onwards, Seckford uses the motto:-
Industria naturam ornatperhaps: labour adorns nature, which more directly compliments the work. Both mottoes seem to have been invented by Seckford for the project.
In the strapwork of the cartouche around Seckford's arms there is a date for the map:-
AN DNI / 1575
Notes about heraldry.
name
In a small strapwork cartouche bottom centre of the map is:-
Christophorus Saxton descripsit.
