Old Road Maps

Abstract

THE reference in NATURE of September 16, p. 90, to John Cary's old road map prompts me to send particulars of an old and rare book, “A Pocket-Guide to the English Traveller: Being a Compleat Survey and Admeasurement of all the principal Roads and most considerable cross Roads in England and Wales” by Thomas Gardner, 1719. There are one hundred copper-plate engravings showing the roads, with the bridges, woods, inns, churches, beacons, gallows, etc., passed en route. The scale is, for the actual roads, about one inch to the mile, and every mile is numbered. This book has been in my possession for more than forty years, and I have never met anyone who has seen another copy. It is dedicated to “His Most Serene Majesty George, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, etc.”