The first printed map of Cheshire, in the year 1577 Saxton produced the greatest number of county maps for his atlas, twelve bear the date. This was most probably due to the protection afforded that year by Queen Elizabeth I and granted for a period of ten years. The omission of Saxton’s name from the Burghley proof example led Evans and Lawrence to conclude that the Cheshire was one of those produced earlier in the year. It is engraved by Francis Scatter and along with that of Staffordshire they are the only two attributed to him. Indeed these are his only known works. Christopher Saxton produced one of the earliest national surveys of any kind and the first uniformly conceived cartographic survey of England and Wales. It was begun in about 1574 and completed by 1579: ‘in the long list of British atlases the first name is also the greatest, the name of Christopher Saxton’ (Chubb). Saxton (c.1542–c.1610) was born in the Dunningley, West Riding of Yorkshire. While the details of his early life are sketchy, it is known that he attended Cambridge University, and in 1570 he was apprenticed as a map maker to John Rudd, vicar of Dewsbury. Saxton began work on his county maps in about 1574. In 1577 he received letters patent from Elizabeth I protecting his maps against plagiarism for the next ten years. As well as the Queen’s protection, Saxton also enjoyed the patronage of Thomas Seckford, Master of the Queen’s Requests, whose mottoes are found on the maps. Evans and Lawrence wrote that he ‘left a legacy of maps of the counties of England and Wales from which succeeding generations of map-makers drew extensively … amazingly accurate in detail, [the atlas] survives as testimony to his expertise when surveying techniques and comprehension of the mathematical sciences were still limited.’ They are arguably the most highly prized by collectors of county maps.Philip Lea flourished 1683-1700 as a cartographer, globe, instrument maker and mapseller. His atlases were rarely uniform usually being made to order and his editions of Saxton’s atlas are similarly varying in content, although built around his stock of the original plates. These he acquired sometime around 1689, but from who is unknown. After acquisition Lea set about updating them for publication. This process involved extensive re-engraving of the old plates by incorporating new geographical and decorative material. However during this process some copies of the atlas were sold and two distinct issues have been identified with two different versions of the title page. The early edition dated c.1689 survives in just three known examples. Lea gradually effected the alterations to the plates he desired which included converting the remaining Latin titles to English, the addition of crowns, crosses and mitres to represent various categories of town. Roads were added to the maps following the publication of John Ogilby’s landmark ‘Britannia’ in 1675. Similarly Hundreds were added to the remaining maps as were town plans. The finished set of plates was complete by 1693 and represents their final cartographic form as only the imprints were altered after this date. In the finished form they also appeared in a French edition entitled ‘Atlas Anglois contenant Les Cartes Nouvelles tres Exactes …’ surviving in a unique example. Barber ‘Mapmaking in England, ca.1470-1650’ in ‘The History of Cartography’ volume 3 part 2 pp. 1623-31; Chubb (1927) 8; Evans & Lawrence (1979) pp. 9–43; Harley, Brian ‘The Map Collector’ no. 8 pp. 2-11; Hind (1952-55) vol. 1 p. 73; Lawrence, Heather ‘Christopher Saxton’ in ‘The Map Collector’ 27 pp. 16-18; Shirley (2004) T.Sax 1h; Skelton (1970) 112.