The large scale of one inch to the mile allowed John Cary to include a great deal of detail down to local side roads. The small format allowed a broader sale as it fitted nicely into the pocket. As the title describes ‘every seat thereon, with the name of the Possessor … to which is added, An Index of all the Names contained in the Plates’. A very useful tool even for researchers today. Each individual building is detailed. Cary (c.1754-1835) and descendants were possibly the most prolific publishers of cartography around the turn of the nineteenth century. Cary is noted for the clarity of detail in his maps and was the first to use the Greenwich meridian. Cary had already published road books; indeed his first publication is one showing the roads between London and Falmouth, 1784. A contemporary review praised the work highly. The ‘Monthly Review’ for December 1786 stated ‘In our Review for April last, we made mention of Mr. Cary’s ‘Actual Survey of Middlesex’, and recommended it to the notice of the public, as being ‘peculiarly convenient for occasional consultation – both as a county-map, and as a road-directory’. … Mr Cary’s Surveys are, without question, the most accurate and elegant of any that have appeared since the days of Roque’. Provenance: stamp of W.A.V. Ranken inside back cover; Marlborough Rare Books; private English collection. Beresiner (1983) pp. 80-2; ESTC T212885; Fordham (1925a) pp. 20; Hodson (1984-97) 285 p. 175; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).