FIRST EDITION, SECOND ISSUE, in fabulous early wash colour with the corrected addition of plate numbers ‘8’ and ‘9’ on the those of Cambridgeshire and Cheshire which had been omitted on publication. Immediately following Toms ordered the addition of the price to the end of the imprint on the title page.  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 ‘London Daily Post’ advert stated ‘There are for the Curious, some colour’d in a beautiful Manner, Price 12s bound’. Provenance: Tony Burgess collection; Clive A. Burden Ltd. (2010) item 9; private English collection. Beresiner (1983) pp. 49-50; Chubb (1927) 170; ESTC T165385; Hodson (1984-97) no. 188 (variant B); refer Shirley (2004) T.Bad 1a; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).