The last edition issued prior to the Great Fire of London in 1666. Matthew Simmons (fl.1635-54) is most associated with printing John Milton’s works but in 1635 he published his one and only cartographic work ‘A Direction for the English Traviller’. Known famously as the thumbnail maps due to their size the three editions of this work are all exceedingly scarce. The maps were engraved by Jacob van Langeren and incorporated into a plate containing a distance table for the county, an invention of John Norden’s in 1625. In 1643 Thomas Jenner published an improved edition with four extra folding plates, three of which were maps of England, Wales and Yorkshire. For this new work the van Langeren maps were entirely re-engraved slightly larger.

In 1649 he added text and published it as ‘A Booke of the Names of all the Hundreds’, of which only one complete example is known. This was followed in 1657 by a slightly renamed work, which was effectively an expansion here listing all the towns and hundreds. This 1662 edition has an entirely reset title page. Accompanying each map are printed from type lists of towns and their hundreds in three columns continued on additional leaves. These all derive from the lists in John Speeds ‘Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine’. Again, for this 1662 edition the text is entirely reset. Despite this the errors in pagination are repeated. One notable difference is that the list of the Hundreds for each county is now set in italics. The practice of combining typographic text and engraved plate on the same leaf required two runs through the press. Skelton cites the lack of the original engraved title page of 1643 however it should correctly be present as here. The printer ‘M.S. is quite likely Mary Simmons, the surviving widow of Matthew Simmons. Provenance: manuscript ownership mark of ‘Ex Libr Benj: Rogers … London. 1736’ inside front cover, his name repeated inside back cover; inscription of ‘George Weare Braikenridge 1811’ inside front cover (1775-1856); Burden Collection duplicate; acquired by Doreen Green June 2002; private English Collection. Bennett (2007) p. 8; Chubb (1927) 50; ESTC R28495; Fordham (1924) p. 10; Shirley (2004) T.Lang 1j; Skelton (1970) 70 & Appendix; Tyacke (1978) p. 118.