A monumental six-sheet map of Middlesex, Essex and Hertfordshire

A large and detailed rare map of the three counties, marking Ogilby's roads, engraved by Samuel Parker. It is augmented by a border containing 736 armorials of the local nobility, whose subscriptions paid for the publication. There is also a large title cartouche, an explanation of the map and an explanation of the armorials (including the engraver's colour code). The map was surveyed between 1721 & 1724, when there was a demand replace the surveys that had not been updated since Speed, well over a century before. The work was undertaken using the old techniques like the surveyor;'s wheel rather than trigonometry, and names seem to have been recorded phoenetically, for example 'Tuddington' (Teddington), 'Istleworth' (Isleworth) and 'Slow' (Slough). John Warburton (1682-1759) was Somerset Herald of Arms in Ordinary from 1720 until his death, accounting for his interest in the arms around this map. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Despite the large number of subscribers few examples of this seperate-issue map survive because they were often displayed as wall maps and were often damaged.