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Mr. Philip D. Burden
P.O. Box 863,
Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks HP6 9HD,
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: +44 (0) 1494 76 33 13
Email: enquiries@caburden.com
VERY RARE. Charles Smith was born in London in about 1768. Of his early life, little is known, but in 1800 he published his first works. One of them is this attractive little book focused on the roads from London to the south coast. The improvement of and the opening of the road network in Britain, particularly at the end of the eighteenth century, led to a huge expansion of travel. By 1800 for instance, as David Smith has noted, 18 coaches a day were travelling from London to Brighton. He goes on to state remarkably that ‘by 1836 the London firm of William Chaplin operated 3,000 coaches using 150,000 horses and 30,000 drivers, guards and ostlers’.
This work focuses on illustrating the roads from London to Brighton and Worthing. Each plate features, according to the title, ‘all the Noblemens & Gentlemens Seats, and every remarkable object on, or within View of the Road’. They also identify all of the Inns along the route and those that keep ‘Post Horses and Carriages’. The whole is produced at the scale of one inch to the mile. The final plate is one of Clapham Common detailing all the owners of properties lining the park. A study of the names found resident reveals its influence at the time. William Wilberforce (1759-1833), the slavery abolitionist, is shown at Bromfield House at the top of the plate. Henry Cavendish (1731-1810), related to the Duke of Devonshire, was a great natural philosopher and scientist of the eighteenth century. He discovered Hydrogen and attempted to calculate the density of the earth in the Cavendish Experiment. The latter undertaken at his Clapham residence where he had his own laboratory. Henry Thornton (1760-1815) was a banker, co-founder of the Clapham Sect and an MP. He was pivotal in the founding of the Sierra Leone Company which established the colony for free slaves in Africa. His great grandson was the writer E. M. Forster (1879-1970). Provenance: private English collection. ESTC T229424; Fordham (1924) p. 45; Kingsley (1982) p. 370 Appendix V no. 14; ODNB; Shirley (2004) T.Smit 1a; Smith (1985) p. 84; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).
This work focuses on illustrating the roads from London to Brighton and Worthing. Each plate features, according to the title, ‘all the Noblemens & Gentlemens Seats, and every remarkable object on, or within View of the Road’. They also identify all of the Inns along the route and those that keep ‘Post Horses and Carriages’. The whole is produced at the scale of one inch to the mile. The final plate is one of Clapham Common detailing all the owners of properties lining the park. A study of the names found resident reveals its influence at the time. William Wilberforce (1759-1833), the slavery abolitionist, is shown at Bromfield House at the top of the plate. Henry Cavendish (1731-1810), related to the Duke of Devonshire, was a great natural philosopher and scientist of the eighteenth century. He discovered Hydrogen and attempted to calculate the density of the earth in the Cavendish Experiment. The latter undertaken at his Clapham residence where he had his own laboratory. Henry Thornton (1760-1815) was a banker, co-founder of the Clapham Sect and an MP. He was pivotal in the founding of the Sierra Leone Company which established the colony for free slaves in Africa. His great grandson was the writer E. M. Forster (1879-1970). Provenance: private English collection. ESTC T229424; Fordham (1924) p. 45; Kingsley (1982) p. 370 Appendix V no. 14; ODNB; Shirley (2004) T.Smit 1a; Smith (1985) p. 84; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).
SMITH, Charles
Smith's Actual Survey of the Roads from London to Brighthelmstone through Ryegate, Crawley & Cuckfield with a branch to Worthing. Also From London to Worthing, through Dorking, Horsham & Steyning with a branch from Steyning to Brighthelmstone
C. Smith, Mapseller, No. 172, Strand, London, May 1800
Octavo (155 x 105 mm.), recent full panelled calf, blind corner decorations to boards, spine with ornate gilt ruled compartments, central blind floral feature to compartments, dark blue gilt calf title label, marbled endpapers. With engraved title page, Advertisement, ‘List of Coaches & Waggons’ and 27 road strips bound facing each other in pairs, all with early wash colour. Engraved throughout. In good condition.
Stock number: 9185
SOLD