CHECKLIST OF HAMPSHIRE MAPS
HantsMap is a database listing known maps of the whole or regions of the county of Hampshire.SCOPE
HantsMap includes any map of the whole county or large regions of the county and its coast, but generally excludes maps of individual towns, estates, and so on. Maps from the 16th to the mid 19th century are included as systematically as possible, later maps might be included out of particular interest or because there happens to be an example in the museum service Map Collection.The database also includes route maps of roads, railways, and canals which pass through the county. It mostly excludes the incidental mapping of the county as part of a larger regional or country map but a selection of such larger maps and charts, which are part of the Map Collection, or have been studied in some detail are included. They put Hampshire in its wider setting. In numerous cases the size of Hampshire on a map of England and Wales is bigger than some of the single county maps.
BUT, and it is very big BUT, other maps, road books, guides, etc, outside the basic scope of the project, might be included on a whim. This sort of database must act as a scratch pad for developing research as well as the record of more completed work.
MAP TYPES
The 'map type' terms which identify these records try to reflect who made the map and when, for example 'Norden 1607'. This is not always a clear issue. This naming is only an identifier, do not read too much into it; other recorded data tries to make clear who did what, author, map maker, engraver, publisher, and so on. In the example cited John Norden drew the manuscript map about 1595, the map referred to is the version engraved by William Hole in 1607.COMPLETENESS?
The pages are downloaded from a live database, which will never be complete or utterly correct, new data is always likely to be added as research proceeds. Making this data accessible by publication does not imply the sort of completeness that publishing a book appears to have (books are usually just as incomplete). The data is offered to be shared, whether in machine readable form or in hard copy, with the caveat that it must be accepted for what it is - the data presently held.TRANSCRIPTIONS
Transcriptions from items in the HMCMS Map Collection given as examples, are letter for letter, upper and lowercase as read, usually a [space][slash][space] means a new line, square brackets are used for inferred readings. Fontposture, such as italic and font are not preserved. Line layouts might be ignored in the checklist entries. The rules for other researchers' transcriptions are not known.ILLUSTRATIONS
Many items from the Map Collection have been used to illustrate this directory. Images of the whole maps, larger than life size, are available in the webiste/CD version of the checklist project.Illustrations in the printed checklist are of the map's TITLE, and, if it has one, the map's SCALE LINE. The illustrations cannot all be printed true to life size, but each has a 1 centimetre line superimposed.
The scale line is one of the most effective identifying features for maps. , eg:-
scale line 10 miles = 54.3mmDo not depend on the implied 0.1 mm accuracy! Reading accuracy is about +-0.2 mm, and there are other considerations, eg the stretch of paper as humidity changes which affects measurements of this sort. Chubb's imperial measures of scale lines have been converted to metric; his reading accuracy is not known.
Remember that map colouring is, for early maps, hand colouring, and might have been done at any time between printing and today. The colours on the maps illustrated will not be the same as the colours on another copy of the map.
SCALE
The data for each map may include an entry for the map scale expressed in absolute terms, eg:-1 to 250000 ?The scale is frequently calculated from the scale line on the map, which ignores the problem that the 'mile' may not be a modern statute mile. Other estimates of the scale might have been made from a latitude scale; or by comparing the distances between towns with known distances, aided by DISTTAB.exe software to do the sums. This last method is most reliable, and produces a measure of the map maker's mile, perhaps an Old English Mile. The scale given may not be the true scale of the map, the question mark means what it says, but the given scale is, nevertheless, another useful indexing tool. The scale expressed miles to inch in the descriptions is a more approximate figure.
EXAMPLE DATA
Where possible real data from a copy of the map is displayed from an item in the HMCMS Map Collection or some private collection; sizes, scales, inscriptions, etc. This data is picked up automatically by the display procedure and includes only one example set of data. There may be other items in the collection, as indicated lower in the entry.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As well as the major sources in published works, I am grateful for the access I have to the HMCMS Map Collection, which I currently curate, and the encouragement of the Keeper, Alastair Penfold; to Dominic Fontana and Peter Collier of Portsmouth University; to Adrian Webb at the Hydrographic Office; to Doreen M Green, Ann Downs, and numerous other map dealers all over England, Wales, and Scotland, who have ever been helpful and encouraging; to the owners of private collections, David Webb, Paddy Sandford-Johnson, Winchester College, and others, for permission to look at their collections and reproduce some items; and to the British Library, Hampshire Record Office, Hampshire Library Service, and Wiltshire Library and Museums Service.PUBLICATION
Published is a heavyweight word; with implications of completeness, correctness, and authority. 'If information is published it must be true.' BUT:-That is no longer a reasonable view of publication in an age of databases and electronic communication, even if publication still uses the medium of print on paper. This published checklist is an attempt to share knowledge that has accumulated in a database and reached a stable phase; now growing and altering less rapidly. The database is certainly not complete; I only hope it is reasonably correct; my personal authority is slight, my access to primary sources outwith our collections limited - London and other places are not as accessible as they pretend. But the database is a useful tool for identifying Hampshire maps, and deserves to be made available to others.
REFERENCES
Data for the entries in the database was initially cribbed from the major reference sources about atlases of county maps, Chubb, Skelton and Hodson, and some minor reference books, extracting specific information about Hampshire maps from these authors' more general approach. Improvements to descriptions, and additions to the list, have come from items in the Map Collection of Hampshire CC Museum Service (HMCMS), and from items in other public and private collections.Chubb, Thomas: 1966 (reprint) & 1927: Printed Maps in the Atlases of Great Britain and Ireland (1579-1870): Dawsons of Pall Mall (London)(reprint)
Fordham, Herbert G, Sir: 1924: Road Books and Itineraries of Great Britain: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, Cambridgeshire)
Green, D M, Mrs: 1999=2002: private communications
Hodson, Donald: 1984: County Atlases of the British Isles (vol.1 1704-42): Tewin Press (Tewin, Hertfordshire):: ISBN 0 9509149 0 8
Hodson, Donald: 1989: County Atlases of the British Isles (vol.2 1743-63): Tewin Press (Tewin, Hertfordshire):: ISBN 0 9509149 1 6
Hodson, Donald: 1997: County Atlases of the British Isles (vol.3 1764-89): British Library (London):: ISBN 0 7123 4524 8
Sandford-Johnson, Paddy: 2004: private communications
Rodger, Elizabeth M: 1989: Large Scale English County Maps and Plans of Cities not printed in Atlases: Map Collector: vol.47: pp.11-18
Skelton, R A: 1970: County Atlases of the British Isles (1579-1850): Carta Press (London)
Smith, David: 1996: Victorian Maps of the British Isles: Batsford:: ISBN 0 7134 4178 X
Tooley, R V: 1979: Tooley's Dictionary of Mapmakers: Map Collector Publications
Webb, David: 1999=2002: private communications