Following the extensive work carried out by Christopher and John Greenwood on the series of large scale county surveys a reduced sized atlas was planned. It was advertised in 1828 to appear in four parts at three guineas per part and began as early as 1829, the date recorded on 11 of the plates. There were to be 46 plates, all at the scale of one-third of an inch to a mile. They ran into financial difficulties towards the end and had to take in partners to finish in 1834. ‘For detail, general accuracy and balance allied to high quality engraving and colouring these sheets are probably the finest ever single sheet maps of the counties’ (Carroll).

The maps are reductions of Greenwood’s large scale maps of the counties as stated with the exception of those of Bucks, Cambridge, Hereford, Hertford, Norfolk and Oxford which they did not survey. Studies of individual counties show many were improved with new detail on a regular basis. Examples are bound in various ways, this example commences with Northumberland and concludes with Cornwall. Wales is included in that order. This is an example of the second issue according to Chubb, with the date of 26 January 1831 on the map of Huntingdonshire. Provenance: Derek Burden; Clive A. Burden Ltd. Catalogue IX (2012) item 57; private English collection. Carroll (1996) 102; Chubb (1927) 458b; Tooley (1999-2004); Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).