This is the third edition of the second series of the smallest of three English county atlases produced by John Cary. The immense success of the work wore out the copper plates requiring an entirely new series to be engraved. Only one other work required a new series of plates. That was also by Cary; the ‘New and Correct English Atlas’, of which this was a pocket-sized version. It was designed to be of use to travellers on the widening network of turnpike roads. Travel is at the core of each of the maps, the clear feature of each is the road network. The Advertisement at the beginning stated his intent, ‘With an anxious desire to render this work useful to travellers, the Proprietor has paid every attention to accuracy, and in the endeavour to render it of real utility …’

On each map Cary is prominently identified as the engraver. Above the title on each map may be found a compass rose with the points of the compass, these indicate the orientation of the map. In the border below are found a list of distances to London from key towns and cities found within. All the maps now bear the date 1812. They are printed on one side only and bound facing each other in pairs. Minor alterations occur to most maps and canals are added to some. The entirely reset text at the end of the work is expanded. The ‘Market and Borough Towns’ list now on five pages, compacts a considerable amount of information. The market days for each town are given, borough towns are marked with an asterisk with the number of their representatives given in brackets. Cities and universities are given in capital letters. In this version it is expanded with a number at the end of the column corresponding to the route to it from the Metropolis as listed in the complimentary eleven page ‘Routes Exhibiting the Direct Road’. It describes 141 roads, each listing the major towns passed through and the county maps on which it may be found. This is a reduction of the text found in the larger format ‘Cary’s New and Correct English Atlas’. Provenance: private English collection. Chubb (1927) no. 278; Fordham (1924) p. 40; Fordham (1925) pp. 37-8 (not recognising it as a new series); Smith, D. (1988); Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).