LARGE PAPER COPY. Very little is known about either George Cole or John Roper. The latter appears to have engraved the plates to the atlas from the drawings of Cole. Two however were not engraved by him, Cheshire and Caernarvonshire. The publishers were the established firm of Vernor, Hood and Sharpe and began publishing the British Atlas in parts from October 1804. The maps were produced to accompany Britton and Brayley’s Beauties of England and Wales issued from 1801, a statement to which effect is found on most of them. Its announcement appears in part 32 in May 1804. Each part issue of the British Atlas contained two maps and usually one town plan, or three county maps. The maps were reduced from ‘original surveys … published by Mr. Faden whose permission was exclusively granted …’ The maps are very attractive but it is the town plans that stand out with their delicately engraved vignettes. Provenance: red calf gilt ownership label of ‘Wm. Wix Esqr. Islington Middlesex’ pasted inside upper cover. Beresiner pp. 88-90; Carroll no. 62; Chubb 339.