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RUSSELL, P. & PRICE, Owen : England Displayed. Being A New, Complete, and Accurate Survey and Description of the Kingdom of England, and Principality of Wales

Folio, two volumes in one (360 x 230 mm.), full recent calf, ornate blind panelled boards, spine with raised bands, blind ruled compartments, preserving original red calf gilt title label. With engraved frontispiece, typographic title page, pp. viii, 392 with 25 (of 26, omitting Cambridgeshire) maps; volume 2 with typographic title page, pp. 314, (4) with 28 maps, with 81 copperplate views throughout, some pencil notations in margins, a couple of text leaves with foxing towards the end, otherwise in good condition.

This two volume topographical work describes England and Wales with short descriptions of Scotland and the Channel Islands at the end. They are arranged approximately in the same order as William Camden’s Britannia. The work is extra illustrated with a series of approximately eighty copper plate views. It was originally issued like so many works in the eighteenth century in parts, the first appearing on 8 April 1769. The four-page prospectus surviving in the Bodleian Library outlines the project.The cartographic content of the England Displayed is mixed. The first several parts from Cornwall to Dorset used maps by Thomas Kitchin first published in the London Magazine. At about this time the arrangement changed and the plates owned by Mary Ann Rocque were presumably bought in. Towards the end of the publication however, those of Kitchin and George Rollos were used. This may reflect upon Mary Ann Rocque as the plates do not appear in the sale of her goods in the auction catalogue of 4 July 1771. This example bears thirty-seven maps from Rocque, some examples include the Rocque version of Wiltshire whereas this contains that of Kitchin. Ten maps are from the Kitchin series which are Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Caernarvonshire and Cardiganshire. The remaining seven maps are made up of a folding map of Great Britain, a folding map of twenty miles round London, four county maps by Rollos originally published in the British Magazine, 1762-63 and a map of Bedfordshire derived from that of Rollos. The final map of the Channel Islands is not called for and not always present as here.The accompanying descriptive text draws upon many earlier works but is brought largely up to date. After the parts were completed as is often the case, the work was made available as a complete book which is usually found in two volumes, the first ends with the description of Nottinghamshire. Chubb 210 & 236; ESTC T110454; Hodson 203 & App I no. 4 (Rollos); Worms & Baynton-Williams.

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