With an interesting provenance. Thomas Badeslade (fl.1719-1745) was a surveyor and engineer who was involved in many schemes to improve the waterways. He was also an established author and in 1742 he had William Henry Toms (fl.1723-61) engrave a series of maps from his draughts and publish them as the ‘Chorographia Britanniae’. It is the first pocket size English county atlas published in the eighteenth century. It is surprising that it took so long considering the runaway success of the ‘Britannia Depicta’ of 1720. The first edition of the atlas is found in four variants and was on sale for only a short period of time. Within two or three months a new edition was published.

The second issue placed plate numbers ‘8’ and ‘9’ on Cambridgeshire and Cheshire respectively where previously omitted. The third issue is extremely rare and contained an error of pricing. This fourth issue of the first edition shows ‘Price in Sheets 5s Bound 5s’. This edition is before the addition of further placenames and neighbouring county boundaries.

This example has a notable provenance of James Frampton of Moreton House, Dorset. It was his son of the same name who prosecuted the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Provenance: bookplate of James Frampton; Donald Hodson collection since 1965. Beresiner (1983) pp. 49-50; Chubb (1927) 170; ESTC T165385; Hodson (1984-97) no. 188 (atlas D, p. 164); refer Shirley (2004) T.Bad 1a; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).