Map of a Nation (67 page)

85
at Misterton Carr near Doncaster
Mudge and Colby, pp. v–vi, 82.

86
a wild and most arduous service
Robert Dawson, cited in Portlock, p. 7.

87
the mountain tapered
Kohl, pp. 68–9, cited in Harley and Oliver, VI, pp. vii–viii.

88
several tents
Kohl, pp. 68–9, cited in Harley and Oliver, VI, pp. vii–viii.

89
Snowdon … lies right in the centre
Kohl, pp. 68–9, cited in Harley and Oliver, VI, pp. vii–viii.

90
Survey of Norfolk
Close, 1969, p. 50. See also Thomas Colby, ‘Précis of the Progress of the Ordnance Survey of England and Wales 1783–1834’, NA, WO 44/714, f. 1.

91
the range of mountains
Robert Dawson to Thomas Colby, 4 July 1816, cited in Close, 1969, p. 51.

92
to select those
who draw well
Hobbs to Thomas Colby, 1 March 1821, Ordnance Survey Letter Book, NA, OS 3/260, f. 235; cited in Hodson, 1989, p. 16.

93
aim[ing] at a large and striking example
Robert Dawson to Thomas Colby, 8 Dec em ber 1815, cited in Close, 1969, p. 81. This is also commented on by Alfrey, p. 25.

94
a degree of perfection
Flint, pp. 140–1.

95
a plan of Snowdonia
Robert Dawson, ‘Plan of Cader Idris’, BL, OSD 319, part 1.

96
2914 feet
See Compton, p. 5.

97
towards the expression of Ground
Robert Kearsley Dawson, Essays towards the expression of Ground in Topographical Plans, BL, Maps C.21.e.7.

98
mathematical forms
Robert Kearsley Dawson, ‘Mathematical Forms Applicable to Hills’, Essays towards the expression of Ground in Topographical Plans, BL, Maps C.21.e.7.

99
conical and hemispherical hill[s]
Robert Kearsley Dawson, ‘Natural Form Corresponding to Fig. 3 of the Mathematical Forms. Conical Hill’ and ‘Hemispherical Hill’, Essays towards the expression of Ground in Topographical Plans, BL, Maps C.21.e.7.

100
I feel it my duty to state
Gosset to Richard Zachariah Mudge, 11 June 1832, Letters copied from a book in the possession of the Ordnance Survey relating to the origin of the Geological Survey and the Geological Museum, ranging from March 1830 to March 1845, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Department of Geology, De la Beche Papers. Cited in Harley and Oliver, VI, p. xii.

101
I should be very sorry to see
Richard Zachariah Mudge to Robert Dawson, 16 June 1832, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; cited in Harley and Oliver, VI, p. xii.

102
The requirements of art and cartography
For discussions of the relationship between art and cartography, and the use of symbols by both, see Harvey; Keates; MacEachren; Robinson, Arthur, 1952; and Wright.

103
They duly misunderstood Llandovery
Harley, 1971, p. 92.

104
Ruddy pene
Harley and Walters, 1982, p. 100.

105
murdered by English map-makers
Lewis Morris, ‘Proposals for taking, by Subscription, a General Survey of Mona’, National Library of Wales, MSS 1731–3; cited in Walters, 1970; and Harley, 1971, p. 93.

106
much indebted
Robert Dawson, ‘Plan of Arran Mowddy’, BL, OSD 303, 1819; cited in Harley, 1971, p. 98.

107
Mr Colby in the Northern part
Ordnance Survey Letter Book, 1817–1822, Ordnance Survey Headquarters Southampton, ff. 219–21; cited in Harley, 1971, p. 95.

108
Crosswoodig
Cited in Harley and Walters, 1982, p. 109.

109
on one side of it
Ordnance Survey Letter Book, 1817–1822, Ordnance Survey Headquarters Southampton, ff. 219–21; cited in Harley and Walters, 1982, pp. 108–9.

110
You have called it Caerdiff
Lewis Weston Dillwyn, letter accompanies BL,
two-inch 
Hill Sketches serial 459 (one-inch sheet no. 36); cited in Harley and Walters, 1982, p. 108.

111
that in the Ordnance Map
Ordnance Survey Letter Book, 1817–1822, Ordnance Survey Headquarters Southampton, f. 217.

112
we have long been aware of the difficulty
Letters copied from a book in the
possession
of the Ordnance Survey relating to the origin of the Geological Survey and the Geological Museum, ranging from March 1830 to March 1845, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Department of Geology, De la Beche Papers, pp. 36–7; cited in Harley, 1971, pp. 98–9.

113
who is employed in the County
Letters copied from a book in the possession of the Ordnance Survey relating to the origin of the Geological Survey and the Geological Museum, ranging from March 1830 to March 1845, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Department of Geology, De la Beche Papers, pp. 36–7; cited in Harley, 1971, p. 99.

114
Cities, Market-Towns, Parishes
Ravenhill, 1978, p. 424.

115
the words Lan and Llan
Alfred Thomas to Richard Zachariah Mudge, 29 October 1831, Letters copied from a book in the possession of the Ordnance Survey relating to the origin of the Geological Survey and the Geological Museum, ranging from March 1830 to March 1845, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Department of Geology, De la Beche Papers, pp. 35–6; cited in Harley and Walters, 1982, p. 111.

116
I cannot help feeling
J.R. Haslam to Richard Zachariah Mudge, 9 November 1831, Letters copied from a book in the possession of the Ordnance Survey relating to the origin of the Geological Survey and the Geological Museum, ranging from March 1830 to March 1845, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Department of Geology, De la Beche Papers, pp. 38–9; cited in Harley and Walters, 1982, p. 112.

117
the Public are hereby informed The Times
, 10355, p. 1, 16 January 1818.

1
Early in the mapping season
Although the exact date that the Ordnance Surveyors were in Kettlewell has not been established, Mudge and Colby, pp. 41–3, indicate it was towards the end of the triangulation conducted between 1800 and 1809.

2
At first, they followed a track
My fictionalised description of the surveyors’ route is extrapolated from the current Wharfedale and Nidderdale landscape and the Ordnance Survey’s own First Series map of Wharfedale, Sheet 97,
published
in 1860–1. Admittedly, this was published half a century after the Trigonometrical Survey’s presence, but this passage is intended to be read in the spirit of the chapter’s title: as material for the ‘imagination’ and an
exploration
of its cartographic energy, rather than as a meticulously authentic representation. Whereas the rest of the book is based on archival and
historical
research, this chapter makes greater use of fictional and poetic descriptions of the act of mapping, and some of my account of the surveyors’ activities is based on that provided by authors. Nevertheless, Hag Dyke cottage was built before 1730, and still survives as a Scout Hostel, and it provides a constant in the landscape between the Ordnance Surveyors’ experience and the present-day walker’s.

3
a great number of huge rocks
Mudge and Colby, p. 79.

4
These reservoirs were built
See Chris Hawkesworth’s video,
A Century of Reservoirs
, and ‘History of Scar House Reservoir’, [accessed 12 April 2010].

5
Mudge and Colby’s team arrived
Again, the exact date that the Ordnance Surveyors were in Kettlewell has not been established, but Broglio, p. 70; Wyatt, 2001, pp. 1.5–1.6; and Mudge and Colby, pp. 41–2, indicate between them that it was in 1808.

6
the men first made their way to Bootle
William Wordsworth, 1993, p. 29, indicates that the Reverend Dr James Satterthwaite, who had the living at Bootle, was acquainted with the surveyors’ presence in Bootle.

7
guide-posts and milestones
Moir, Esther, pp. 8–9.

8
In the summer of 1811
Wyatt, 2001, pp. 1.1–1.3.

9
Eight years previously
See Barker, Juliet, pp. 418–19; cited in Wyatt, 2001, p. 1.2. For biographical details about Wordsworth and his trip to Bootle, see Gill.

10
Ocean’s ceaseless roar
William Wordsworth, ‘To Sir George Howland Beaumont’, in Wordsworth, 1969, p. 408.

11
bleakest point of Cumbria’s shore
William Wordsworth, ‘To Sir George Howland Beaumont’, in Wordsworth, 1969, p. 408.

12
grim neighbour! huge Black Combe
William Wordsworth, ‘To Sir George Howland Beaumont’, in Wordsworth, 1969, p. 408.

13
the loveliest spot
William Wordsworth, ‘A Farewell’, in Wordsworth, 1969, p. 84.

14
rough is the time
William Wordsworth, ‘To Sir George Howland Beaumont’, in Wordsworth, 1969, p. 408.

15
Reverend Dr James Satterthwaite
Wordsworth, 1993, p. 29; cited in Wyatt, 2001, p. 1.5.

16
the best authority
William Wordsworth, ‘An Unpublished Tour’, 1974, II, p. 302. For a discussion of Wordsworth’s acquaintance with, and
representations
of, Mudge, see Wiley, especially pp. 30, 158.

17
a two-volume collection of poetry
See Wordsworth, 1815.

18
from the summit of Black Combe
Wordsworth, ‘View from the Top of Black Combe’, 1815, I, p. 305.

19
low dusky tracts
Wordsworth, ‘View from the Top of Black Combe’, 1815, I, p. 305.

20
that experienced observer
Wordsworth, 1977, p. 8.

21
the solitary Mountain Black Combe
Wordsworth, 1977, p. 8.

22
a revelation infinite
Wordsworth, ‘View from the Top of Black Combe’, 1815, I, p. 306.

23
grand terraqueous spectacle
Wordsworth, ‘Inscription: Written With a Slate Pencil on a Stone, on the Side of the Mountain of Black Combe’, 1815, II, p. 285.

24
display august of man’s inheritance
Wordsworth, ‘View from the Top of Black Combe’, 1815, I, p. 306. For an extended discussion of the nationalist resonance of Wordsworth’s Black Combe poems, see the chapter called ‘Abandoning Utopia’ in Wiley.

25
Mentions of maps … poems and plays
See Hewitt, 2007, pp. 139–40, for a
rudimentary
discussion of the apparent upsurge in mentions of maps in literature in the late eighteenth century.

26
map-minded
Edney, 1994a.

27
maps were popular subjects for embroidery
See, for example, Sampler, 1780, V&A Museum No. 497–1905.

28
A New Geographical Pastime
Board Game – A New Royal Geographical Pastime for England & Wales, published by Robert Sayer, London, 1 June 1787.
Hand-coloured
engraved paper on linen. V&A Museum No. E. 5307–1960. On a different but related note, it is also interesting to think about how surveyors’ viewing practices may be related to what Peter de Bolla calls ‘the birth of visual culture’, which he pinpoints in the 1760s: the decade in which William Roy articulated his first coherent proposal for a complete national survey (see de Bolla).

29
reading, with a Map
Fennell, p. 14 (Act I, scene ii).

30
at some leisure hour
Wordsworth,
The Excursion
, in Wordsworth, 1949–54, V, p. 256.

31
shatter’d map
Thomas Dermody, ‘The Invalid’, in Dermody, p. 89.

32
lost lovers
See Aslam.

33
a mere geographer
Thomas Tickell, ‘An Epistle’, in Johnson, 1810, XXI, p. 109.

34
prospect poetry or painting
For discussions of the aesthetic and political significance of the prospect in poetry and art, see Barrell, 1972; Barrell, 1980; Barrell, 1983.

35
Hope’s deluding glass
John Dyer, ‘Grongar Hill’, in Dyer and Akenside, p. 6.

36
commanding height
See Barrell, 1972, p. 24. It is noticeable how regularly the adjective ‘commanding’ crops up in the works of Roy, Mudge and Colby in this context. See Roy, 1790, p. 264; Mudge, William, 1800, pp. 579, 580; Mudge, Williams and Dalby, 1795a, p. 476; Mudge, Williams and Dalby, 1975b, pp. 64, 153; Mudge, Williams and Dalby, 1797a, p. 436; Mudge, Williams and Dalby, 1797b, pp. 6, 77.

37
Hertford’s ancient town
John Hughes, ‘A Monumental Ode’, in Hughes, II, p. 101.

38
all the coast of Galloway
Robert Dundas (son of 3rd Lord President), Journal of Lake District Travels, NRAS 3246, Bundle 174, ‘chapter 29’.

39
true philanthropy
Smith, Charlotte, 1798, pp. 351–2.

40
genuine liberty
Anon, 1802, pp. 28, 29.

41
Europe’s continent
Anon, 1802, p. 56.

42
poor dwindled map
Ireland, pp. 21–2.

43
perspective
For discussions of the geometric correspondences between art and maps, see Alfrey; and Cosgrove.

44
the art of delineating
Chambers, II, ‘Perspective’.

45
a childhood enthusiast of perspective
Edgcumbe.

46
reduce the idea of beauty to general principles
Reynolds, I, pp. xcvii–xcviii (note 54).

47
telescopes, and crucibles, and maps
Wordsworth, 1979, p. 168.

48
marked by a microscopic acuteness
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1956–71, I, pp. 354–5.

49
unthreatened, unproclaimed
Wordsworth, ‘Inscription: Written With a Slate Pencil on a Stone, on the Side of the Mountain of Black Combe’, 1815, II, p. 286.

50
as if the golden day
Wordsworth, ‘Inscription: Written With a Slate Pencil on a Stone, on the Side of the Mountain of Black Combe’, 1815, II, p. 286.

51
esprit géométrique
Fontenelle, p. 151.

52
God forbid that truth
Blake, p. 659. A discussion of Blake’s response to Newtonian physics can be found in Ault. I am very grateful to Pete Newbon for conversations about Blake and cartography, which has greatly helped my thinking (see Newbon in Works Cited). A discussion of Blake and Reynolds’ differing approaches to aesthetics can be found in Barrell, 1986a and 1986b.

53
disposition to abstractions
Reynolds, I, pp. xcvii–xcviii (note 54).

54
To Generalize is to be an Idiot
Blake, p. 641.

55
Villainy
Blake, p. 639.

56
old [Zachariah] Mudge
Reynolds, I, pp. xxxiii–xxxiv.

57
visionary country
Malkin, p. 93.

58
giving names of his own invention
Malkin, p. 94.

59
a very remarkable production
Malkin, p. 94.

60
an exercise of the mind
Malkin, p. 95.

61
Quitted [his] house
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1957, I:
Text
, entry 1207.

62
every man [is] his own path-maker
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1957, I:
Text
, entry 1207.

63
Motivated variously
For an extended discussion of the rise of pedestrianism in the Romantic period, see Jarvis.

64
Coleridge made himself a map
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1957, I:
Text
, entry 1206.

65
O What a Lake
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1957, I:
Text
, entry 1213.

66
the top of the Lake
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1957, I:
Text
, entry 1213.

67
it is impossible to conceive it
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1957, I:
Text
, entry 1213.

68
He duly sketched a map
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1957, I:
Text
, entry 1213.

69
steep as the meal
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1957, I:
Text
, entry 1213.

70
When I first came
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1957, I:
Text
, entry 1213.

71
Coleridge’s use of maps
For further discussion of travellers’ use of guides, see Stafford; and Vaughan.

72
The love of maps
The emotional and psychological resonance of geography and cartography is fundamental to a literary movement known as ‘
psychogeography
’: see Debord for one of the founding texts. See also Lynch.