Ogilby's Hampshire 1675
Notes byMartin and Jean Norgate: 1998
These notes are made from the preface to the road book Britannia, published by John Ogilby, 1675.
SIR,
THE Engagements We lay under at the Commencement of those Differences wherein the Greater Part of EUROPE stands at present Concern'd, being by Divine Providence, and your Sacred majesty's Great Prudence happily Withdrawn; You have Laid Open to Us all those Maritin Itineraries, Whereby We Trade and Traffique to the several Parts and Ports of the World, through the Two and Thirty Points or Bearings of the Universe.
Conformable to Which, Influenc'd by Your Majesty's Approbation and Munificence, I have Attempted to Improve Our Commerce and Correspondency at Home, by Registring and Illustrating Your Majesty's High-Ways, Directly and Transversly, as from Shore to Shore, so to the Prescrib'd Limits of the Circumambient Ocean, from this Great Emporium and Prime Center of the Kingdom, Your Royal Metropolis.
Precedents of this Nature Divine Authority is not wanting to afford; Had not the Constant Practice of the Greatest Princes, even in the Achma of the Three Last Empires of the World, and We may Presume the Assyrian also, Highly Recommended It a Work truly Great and Political.
For, The Persian Princes had the Stationary Distances through Their Vast Extended Territories exactly Registred and Enumerated; The Macedonian Conqueror had His Mensores Itinerum Alexandri; And the Illustrious Founder of the Roman Greatnes, IULIUS CAESAR, not only Compos'd an Universal Itinerary, but Order'd That Great Survey of the World, that became the Work of Two and Thirty Years: Lastly, the August Emperor, Antoninus Pius, in that Celebrated Collection of His, of the Consular Ways and Stations, Mansions and Mutations throughout the Whole Roman Empire, Has Oblig'd Us more especially with an Iter Britanniarum, a Distinct Itinerary of that Part of Britain which Added so Great a Lustre to the Roman Diadem.
The Excellency of such Tables, equally Corresponding the Compliances of Peace and Rufflings of War, has through all Ages found an Acknowledgement; And yet the most Accurate Ones of this Kind, even those Peutingerian Military Charts so Worthily Admir'd, appear too faint a Resemblance, whereby an Idaea might be Fram'd, of what We have Wrought This Our Essay to, by Actual Dimensuration.
Here then I Present Your Sacred Majesty with an Important Novelty, the Scale of Peace and War, whereby (not to Presribe Your Majesty) a True Prospect of This Your Flourishing Kingdom may be Taken, Pregnant Hints of Security and Interest Gather'd, and the Considerable Augmentation of It's Extent, beyond Vulgar Estimation, more Certainly Collected, than from any the Notional Accounts, Impos'd heretofore, by the Erroneous Computations of Latitude, Longitude, or Proportion.
I might here be Bold to tell Your Majesty, That We, who have hitherto seem'd to Truckle under the Fame of France and Belgium, for Performances of this Nature, may Presume, by the Propinquity of This Our Design to Perfection, That perchance no Attempt at first came nearer, to have Given such Measures to The Virtuosi of the World, as Foreign Princes and States shall be Glad to Imitate.
But I, Dread Soveraign, Choose rather to Consecrate It, as An Earnest to The Succeeding Volumes of My BRITANNIA; That Your Majesty and The World may See, how Effectually Operative Your Royal Countenance is, in Adapting such Mean Abilities to so Great Performances, That perchance no Library in The World affords a Parallel.
May the same Influences Tend to the Culminating all other Arts and Sciences, and the King of Kings Crown Your Sacred Head with Peace and Plenty, Raising up the Splendor of Great Britains Monarchy, and Rendring It The Grand Exemplar of Industry and Ingenuity, even to the more Polite and Civiliz'd Nations of the World.
Such are the Fervent Desires of
Your Majesty's Most Humble, Obedient,
and Loyal Subject, and Servant,
JOHN OGILBY.
GEOGRAPHY or the Description of the Superficies of the Terrestrial Globe, of so high Concernment in the Interest and Affairs of Mankind, though it has in all Ages been an equal Sharer in the happy Improvements of Humane Learning, is yet capable of being brought to a far more transcendant Pitch, by that most absolute Method which the Volumes in Hand present you with, ACTUAL DIMENSURATION.
That the Ancients, though there was a constant Emulation of Out-doing one another, were infinitely short in their Performances of this kind; the Perusers of Eratosthenes, Strabo, Mela, Pliny, Solinus and Ptolomy, will readily acknowledg, nay, even those later Geographers, Ortelius and Mercator, not to mention Our Modern ones, Bleau, Sanson, and the Rest, so Eminent for the Curious Performances of the Graver; their most Accurate Maps being but so many Guess-Plots and their Permabulated Projections, as those of Our own Country Compil'd by Mr. Saxton, and more and more vitiated since by Transcribers and Copiers, much inferior to what might have been done by a strict Dimensuration.
Now, the Methods made use of by Geographers in the Description and Illustration of Kingdoms and Countries are various, Some following the natural Traduction of Rivers and Moutains, Others the Distinction of People and Inhabitants, Others again more frequently, the Politique Division of Princes; but Antiquity and the Practical Succession of Geography has more especially commended to Us the Itinerary Way as the most Regular and Absolute; and the greatest Height the Prosecution of this Method hath arriv'd to beyond the common Itinerary Tables, are those Chorographical Charts or Tabulae Peutingerianae, Collected out of Ptolomy and Antonine, being the Delineation of the Stations in the Later upon the Maps of the Former at 40 or 50 Miles per Inch only, which being Cut in Brass and Illustrated by Mark Velser, are to be seen in Bertuis's Edition of Ptolomy and elsewhere; from which Precedent have been Deduc'd all the latter Performances of this Kind; wherby 'tis no Marvel if the Tracing of Notionary Roads upon imperfect Charts at Minute Scales be the highest Perfection the best of Our Geographers, Dutch or French, can as yet pretend to.
These Considerations may sufficiently Authorize the present Undertaking, were We not under the more particular Obligations of Compleating Our English Atlas, wherein having Design'd to each Quarter of the World one fair Volume, and a fifth to BRITANNIA; Practical Experience taught Us, that in such a Compendium an Actual Survey of all England, in order to the Regulating our Maps and Reforming our Histories, would to Vulgar Appearance be little more than Action Agere, though the Dimensuration of Roads and other Perambulations in Order thereunto, and from His Majesty's Approbation and Signal Encouragement of the Design in Embrio, succeeded by divers of the Nobility, We advisedly Enlarg'd it into 3 Volumes; whereof this being the First, to contain An Ichnographical and Historical Description of all the Principal Road-Ways in England and Wales; The second, A Description of the 25 Cities with Peculiar Charts to each of them, but more particularly those of LONDON and WESTMINSTER; and the Third, A Topographical Description of the whole Kingdom, under the Title of BRITANNIA.
That such a Triple Illustration of the Kingdom cannot be but of Excellent, nay Absolute Use, the Benefit the Nation Acknowledges from the fainter indigested Representations hereof already extant is sufficient to persuade: For not to Press the infallible Notions deducible in order to the Security against Civil Dissension and Foreign Invasion, of what infinite Advantage may we presume it in Reviving and Propagating the Great Soul of the World, Commerce and Correspondency, in maintaining Privileges, encouraging Industry, and inciting the whole Kingdom to a Noble Emulation of recovering a Pristine Splendor, establishing a Present Greatness, or laying Foundations of a Future Glory; These and a thousand Others might be urg'd, did not the Novelty as well as the real Utility (whereof Posterity will be more and more sensible) sufficiently perswade Us of the general Acceptation of a Work from which Ignorance and Malice alone is able to Detract.
Hitherto of the Undertaking in General as Praefatory to the more material Business of this Place, an Explanation of the WORK, which before We proceed to, We shall in a few Lines consider the Roads of England Antique and Modern: the Asserters of the Brittish King Malmud or Malmutis Dunwallo, Anno Mundi 3522. make Him, among other Eminences, the Raiser of those 4 Great Ways of the Kingdom, known at this Day by the names of Watlingstreet, the Foss, Ermingstreet, and Ikneldstreet; but the more Sober conclude them a Work of the Romans, who by such Consular, Praetorian and Military Ways facilitated the march of their Armies, and the Communication between Station and Station, and believe, that even at their Departure from Britain, that which We call the Fosse-Way remain'd then imperfect and unfinish'd; for even besides these, there are divers others of the like Erection though of less Extent, leading likewise from now antiquated Stations to other like Stations Garisons, or Colonies, whose Names speak them sufficiently the Viae publicae of the Roman Empire in Brittain: Many of these following the fate of the Stations themselves are grown infrequented and obsolete, and with New Towns, New Ways have gradually succeeded; and the Principal Modern Roads (even those the Present Volume take Notice of) are either such as lead Directly from the City of LONDON toward the Kingdoms of Scotland or Ireland, or the Countries of France or Belgium, or some Eminent Inland City or Maritin Port; or Cross, from Great Town to Great Town, among which the Post Roads for conveying Letters missive to and from this Great Center, taking up a considerable Part, We have at the End of this Preface added a particular Account thereof; and come now to the Explanatory Part of the Work itself, as relating to, It's
Division and Persecution.
I. As to the First of which, Having Illustrated the Principal Roads of England and Wales by 85 several Itineraries, We have distinguisht the same into Direct Roads and Cross Roads, calling such Direct as proceed Directly from this Our Prime Center and Grand Metropolis, LONDON, to the less Central Cities, Capital Towns, or other Eminent Places of the Kingdom; and calling such Cross as lead from some of the said Lesser Centers to another like Capital Town or Place of Eminency; The First of which We have divided into Independants, or such as Commencing actually at LONDON, receive the beginning of Computation from the Standard in Cornhill, as from another Milliarum Aureum: And Dependants, or such as being Computed from LONDON, Commence not Actually there, but Branch out of the foresaid Independants; and the Second into Principal Cross Roads leading directly from Town to Town as aforesaid; and Accidental Ones consisting of several shorter Branches, some Independant some Dependant: These We have caus'd to be Engraven in 100 Whole-Sheet Copper Sculps, whereof some Roads Extend to 2, 3 and 4. Plates, and the Barwick Road to 5. Others are contain'd in single Plates, and in some few Plates again We have Inserted two, and more rarely, 3 distinct Roads.
As to the Prosecution, We may consider the Dimensuration, Delineation and Illustration.
II. In Dimensuration, We might here Treat of the Several Measures us'd by the Antients; as among the Persians and Egyptians, the Schoenos containing two Parasangs or 60 Stadia; the Leuca or League among the Gauls, containing 1500 Paces,and the Rasta of the Germans 3000. but suffice it, that We say somewhat to the Roman Measure by which our Stations in Antonine are Computed; applying That and the Modern European Ones to the English Standard. The Romans accounted by Miles and Stadia, the Mile contain'd precisely 1000 Paces of 5 Foot, and the Stadium or Furlong 125 Paces, yet others Reckon the Stadium but 120 Paces or 600 Foot, and some Account the Mile but 7 Stadia and an half; now the Roman Foot exceeded Ours by 33 Parts of 1000; but the Itinerary Miles seem rather a Computation than any strict Measure, since by Our Dimensurated Intervals of the more certainly-known Stations, the Mile which should answer the English one as 1033 to 1056 seems rather larger than Our own, if the continual Inequality thereof admit a Censure: To which We may add, That the antient Greek Foot is said to contain decimally 1'076 Parts; the Babylonian 1'211; the Alexandrian 1'240, and the Arabian 1'102 of the English Foot, and as to Forein Measures in use, the Rhynland Foot being the same as the Roman 1'033; the Foot of Amsterdam '934; Antwerp '939; Hafnia (in Denmark) '965; Paris (the Royal Foot) 1'070; Venice 1'157; Toledo '896, and Nuremburgh 1'006 Parts of the said English Foot. And as to the English Mile it is deduc'd from a Barley-Corn, whereof 3 in length make an Inch, 12 Inches a Foot, 3 Feet a Yard, 3 Feet 9 Inches an Ell, 5 Feet a Pace, 6 Feet a Fathom, 5 Yards and an half or 16 Feet and an half a Pole, Perch or Rod, 40 such Poles a Furlong, and 8 Furlongs a Mile; so that a Mile English contains 8 Furlongs, 320 Poles, 1'056 Paces, 1760 Yards, 5'280 Feet, and 63'360 Inches.
To this of Measures We may adjoyn a Word or two of Dimensurators or Measuring Instruments, whereof the mosts usual has been the Chain, and the common length for English Measures 4 Poles, as answering indifferently to the English Mile and Acre, 10 such Chains in length making a Furlong, and 10 single square Chains an Acre, so that a square Mile contains 640 square Acres; This, as it obliges the Surveyor to chargeable Assistances, so it exposes the Account to the Dangers of Mistakes, which, perhaps is not the least Reason of the slow Progress of Actual Dimensuration, even in these last Centuries; That We have been much facilitated therefore in this Great Work by the Wheel Dimensurator, which, for Ease and Accurateness infinitely surpasses the Chain, as being manageable by a single Person, Measuring, even the smallest Deviations of the Way, and finishing a Revolution but once in 10 Miles; We readily acknowledge, and even in Wheels themselves, commend rather the Foor-Wheel here mention'd, of half a Pole Circumference, with the Way-Wizars as they are now Regulated, than any such like Coach or Chariot-Mensurator whatsoever.
In the Delineation or Decyphering these Roads upon Copper-Sculptures:
1. We have Projected them upon imaginary Scrolls, the Initial City or Town being always at the Bottom of the outmost Scroll on the Left Hand; whence your Road ascends to the Top of the said Scroll; then from the Bottom of the next Scroll ascends again, thus constantly ascending till it terminate at the Top of the outmost Scroll on the Right Hand, as by the Succession of Figures representing the Miles, mostly plainly appears.
2. The Road itself is express'd by double Black Lines if included by Hedges, or Prick'd Lines if open; but if the Road be describ'd altogether by Black Lines or Prick'd Lines throughout the whole Plate, then the Distinction aforesaid of Enclos'd and Open is omitted.
3. The Scale by which the said Road is Protracted, is according to one Inch to a Mile, or the 63'360th. Part of a Mile; the said Miles being exprest by double Points, and numbred by the Figures 1, 2, 3, &c. Each subdivided into 8 Furlongs, represented by the single Points included between the said double Ones.
4. The several Deviations or Turnings out of the Road to adjacent Places on either Hand, are exprest by a short double Line, and are generally inscrib'd, to such a Place, and sometimes the reputed Distance of the said Place in Miles is likewise signify'd by Figures affixt.
5. Capital Towns are describ'd Ichnographically, according to their Form and Extent; but the Lesser Towns and Villages, with the Mansion Houses, Castles, Churches, Mills, Beacons, Woods, &c. Scenographically, or in Prospect.
6. Bridges are usually noted with a Circular Line like an Arch, but are generally imply'd where the River or Brooks crost are not drawn through the Road.
7. Rivers are Decypher'd by a treble wav'd Line or more, and the lesser Rills or Brooks by a single or double Line, according to their Eminency.
8. Ascents are noted as the Hills in ordinary Maps, Descents e contra, with their Bases upwards.
9. Whatever is posited upon or within the Scroll, is presum'd to bear the same Scale as the Road it self.
10. The several Inclinations of the Road to the one or th'other Hand, are naturally express'd accordingly, and the Points of Bearing are Collected from the peculiar Compass of each Scroll, the Flower-de-luce shewing the North; and when a Compass is repeated in the self same Scroll, a straight transverse Line expresses to what Part of the Scroll either of the said Compasses belong.
In the Illustrations or Historical Part, respecting the General and Particular History, the first thing occuring is the Point of Bearing from the Initial to the terminating Town of the Road; wherein We have advisedly vary'd from the Positions of former Maps; The Original of which Compil'd by Mr. Saxton about an Hundred years a-go, were Projected according to the Meridian of the Magnetick Needle (in England) which then vary'd 12 Degrees from North to East; since which, it has gradually inclin'd to the true Meridian, which in England it respected Anno 1658. but in France Anno 1666. and now varies with Us about 3 Degrees 15 Minutes to the West.
Secondly, the Direct Horizontal Distance, by which We understand the nearest Interval between the two Places, which We have cursorily Collected from the Horizontal Protraction of the said Roads, with convenient Deductions for the several Hills and smaller Deflexures of the Way: And upon these two Points, with the included Difference in the Heavens, depends that necessary Investigation of the Quantity of a Degree upon the Superficies of the Earth, which Ptolomy reckons 500 Stadia; Snellius in his Eratosthenes Batavus, almost 67 Miles; Fernelius by the Revolutions of a Wheel, 68 Italian Miles and 96 Paces; Our Mr. Norwood in his Experiment from YORK, more than 69 Miles and an half; the Learned Mr. Oughtred about 66 Miles and a quarter; the Accurate Mr. Picart above 69 Miles, vis. 57064 Toises of Paris of 6 Foot, equal to 365'184 English Feet, and the Vulgar Computation only 60 Miles: This, if accurately adjusted, (and We hope much, even from Our own Dimensurations) would conduce infinitely to the Regulation of Latitudes and Longitudes: In the first of Which, some have deviated more than a whole Degree in the Position of Barwick, and others 3 or 4 Degrees in the later, in Asserting the Distance between the Lands-End and North-Foreland.
Thirdly, The Vulgar Computation, which (though variously accounted) We have thought fit should also accompany the Dimensuration, by the Inequality of which, the Peruser may easily observe the Erroneous and Irregular Consequencies necessarily following a Dependance thereon, which, in some Parts near equals, in others, answers only 3 quarters, and sometimes but Two Thirds of the Dimensuration; About LONDON the very Roman Miles seeming to be retain'd, but even after 20 Miles distance, revolving into the former Proportions, and not gradually as they are more remote from the City according to Vulgar Belief: Now whence these Computations arose is altogather uncertain, the nearest Conjecture is, that they seem to exclude the whole Length of the Towns, and to be the Distance from the End of one Town to the Beginning of the Next, not regarding the Fractional Parts of a Mile, but taking the lesser Integer, which in a well inhabited Road will come near the Matter.
Lastly, The Tables of Computation and Dimensuration, having Explain'd them in a Printed Relation, pag. 1. We shall onely Illustrate by this Example out of the Aberistwith Road: From LONDON to Acton in the Colums under Computation is 6 Miles, under Dimensuration 8 M. 3 F. From Acton to Uxbridg in the 2d. Line of the first Colume, under Computation 9 Miles; in the same Line and Colume, under Dimensuration 10'1. but from LONDON to Uxbridg, in the same Line and 2d. Colume under Computation 15 Miles, under Dimensuration 18'4. caeteris paribus.
In the Particular History We have precisely Trac'd the Delineation, onely We have Collected at the beginning of each Plate, the Acute and forward Ways issuing out of the Road, as they follow successively from the Town Commenc'd at, and at the end of the Plate, the Obtuse or Backward Ways falling in with the said Road from the Initial Town, but being likwise Acute or Forward from the Terminating Town, whence We have successively recounted them.
In the Historical Account of Places, We have faithfully Collected the most Material Antiquities from the best Authorities, and in the Modern Account the Reader will meet with much of Novelty and much of Utility; neither have We confin'd Our selves to the Road immediately, but have briefly Touch'd upon the more Remarkable Adjacents also, insomuch, that there is scarce one Market Town of Ten in the Kingdom that has mist an Illustration. The principal Variations of Bearing We have added in the Margent by the common Letters, expressing the 32 Points of the Compass, as N. for North, N.b.E. for North by East, N.N.E. for North North-East, N.E.by N. for North-East by North, and N.E. for North-East, & sic de caeteris; the Numbers annext shewing the Miles and Furlongs, whereat the Bearing Commences; and the several Towns and Villages pass'd through, are in like manner Inserted in the Margent, with the Miles and Furlongs representing the Midle of the said Town or Village.
To conclude, Having already given the State of Maps and Itineraries, the Reasons Account and Uses of the Undertaking, with it's Explanation in respect of Dimensuration, Delineation and Illustration; We conceive We may modestly declare, That as to the Volume in Hand, considering the ACTUAL DIMENSURATION of so many Thousand Miles of Roads, through the several Counties of the Kingdom, the Protraction, Delineation and Engravement thereof in 100 Royal Whole-Sheet Copper-Plates, the accomodating them with the Ichnographies of Capital Towns, and an Historical Discourse, wherein the more Remarkable Passages of Antiquity meet with an Accurate and Novel Illustration of the present State; nothing of this Nature requiring so vast a Charge and such infinite Labor and Disquisition was ever yet Attempted, or perchance so much as Thought of, either at Home or Abroad. But as to the Whole Work, the Triple Account of this florishing Kingdom, adding to the former, the Ichnographical and Historical Description of Cities, accurately and elaborately Perform'd, the Chorographical and Topographical Description of Counties, Examin'd and Adjusted by the strictest Rules of Dimensuration, Historical Truths asserted, and Scenographical Ornaments added; We may be bold to Challenge the Universe for a Paralel, and Commend it an Undertaking worthy of the Patronage of the Greatest Princes or Potentates whatsoever.
HAving in our General Survey of all England Design'd the Actual Admeasurement of above 40'000 Miles of Roads, and in Order thereunto, already run over near Two Thirds of that quantity; We have in the subsequent WORK Selected only the most Considerable of Them, or such, as an Orderly Distribution of the Kingdom has Oblig'd Us to Exhibit; wherein, wheresoever the Sincerity of Our Intentions, by Mistake, Omission, or Mis-information, shall appear manifestly Violated, We Crave, and shall gratefully Accept, the candid Informations of Knowing and Judicious Men, and Regulate Our selves and the WORK accordingly, which is still Capable of Emendation, either by Insertion or Alteration.
