Category Archives: Education

“Nice to look at … “

An old letter found at the bottom of the slipcase containing a copy of Andrew Bryant’s Map of the county of Oxford from actual survey, published in 1824, sheds some interesting light on attitudes to history and the value (or otherwise) of old documents. The letter was written from one local historian to another. H.E. Salter wrote many books on the history of Oxford through the first half of the twentieth century, made a map that reconstructed the medieval city, and was one of the editors of the Victoria County History for Oxfordshire. He wrote the letter when sending, as a gift, his copy of Bryant’s map to Edmund Greening-Lamborn, a highly regarded head teacher and largely self-educated local historian who had published many articles and several books on local history and genealogy of Oxfordshire. Greening-Lamborn also wrote on other subjects, and the two men had worked together on archaeological reports. Salter remarks that “Old printed maps of the county are of little use …”, a statement that will no doubt shock many readers of this blog, although he does acknowledge that they are “nice to look at”.

The southern portion of the map. A detached portion of the county is shown as an inset.

Bryant’s map of Oxfordshire is indeed nice to look at, as well as historically informative. However, a closer reading of the letter might lead us to absolve Salter of a dismissive attitude to old maps. Salter clearly had a value for history, but he mentions the Ordnance Survey maps specifically; these covered Oxfordshire from the mid-1830s, and their accuracy and reliability meant that researching any period after they appeared is made much easier.

The letter carries no year, but is addressed from Broad Oak, in Sturminster Newton, so dates from after Salter retired to Dorset in 1942 when he was nearly 80; he died there in 1951. He remarks in the letter that “I am sending you something that I shall never need again.” There is a certain poignancy in the suggestion that, in old age and retirement, he wanted to pass the map to a younger and more active owner.

Salter’s letter to Greening-Lamborn

Bryant’s map is beautifully engraved and accurately surveyed; the copy concerned is from the latest known state of the map, which had some minor revisions made soon after its first publication in 1824. It is enhanced by hand colouring; Salter comments on the usefulness of the individually coloured hundreds, and it marks many minor features of historical interest such as mills, ferries, the names of farms, toll bridges, and minor settlements.

The map shows Oxford at the very south of the county. Historically, the River Thames was the county boundary.

The map reached the Bodleian as part of the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera, which in fact includes a considerable amount of less ephemeral material, like this map. Whether Johnson ever noticed the letter is unknown; it was firmly wedged into the bottom of the slipcase and had to be extracted using a certain amount of force and small plastic ruler.

For more on the life and work of Edmund Greening-Lamborn, see this article by the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques scheme.

Map of the county of Oxford from actual survey / by A. Bryant. London : A Bryant, 1824. J. Maps 4

Piecing the map together

The earliest jigsaws were maps, developed in the eighteenth century as educational tools for children. The map was printed on paper and pasted onto board before being cut into pieces. Rather than the interlocking pieces favoured today, the map was cut along the borders of counties, or countries, so that anyone assembling the jigsaw would learn the geography of the place shown.

The idea seems to have originated with Madame Beaumont, a French woman working in London, who ran a school in Henrietta Street in the mid-eighteenth century. She advertised the dissected maps that were available to the young ladies attending her school, for an additional charge of half a guinea. The idea was commercialised by John Spilsbury in the 1760s, who published jigsaw maps for wider sale; Spilsbury died young and although his wife continued his business, she does not appear to have developed the idea further. Others soon took it up however, and the Bodleian holds a jigsaw map of England and Wales divided into counties, published by Robert Sayer based on a map from the Traveller’s companion. Recently a second copy of this was donated to the Bodleian, with some interesting differences.

All the pieces of this puzzle have survived, even tiny Rutland

Both jigsaws feature the same map of England and Wales, cropped so that the jigsaw is an irregular shape and little of the surrounding sea is shown. One is on heavier board so the pieces are fairly chunky, while the other is flimsier. The one on heavier board also looks to have been printed while the copper plate was relatively new, as the details of the map are clear and dark; on the other (probably later) puzzle roads and hills appear fainter. Both puzzles are of course cut up along county boundaries, but the division in sea areas is slightly different, suggesting that they were cut up at random rather than to a set pattern.There are at least two areas where the the plate has been retouched; the place name of Flamborough Head is in bolder writing on the later plate, and the Isle of Man has changed slightly in shape between the two issues of the map.

The southern part of the Isle of Man on the earlier puzzle
The area has been re-engraved and is more accurate on the later version
One box includes the original label and the name “Marianna Devereux”, presumably a former owner
The second box has been decorated with a hand painted leaf design

The two jigsaw boxes differ as well; the chunkier jigsaw has (naturally) a slightly larger box, which has been decorated with a handpainted design, stuck on with paper. The other shows the original title, “The traveller’s companion, or the post roads of England and Wales, with the distances in measured miles.” The inside of the lid in both cases has the original label, giving the name and address of the publisher, Robert Sayer.

Both boxes carry the same label on the inside of the lid

From the beginning of commerical jigsaws there are examples of the same puzzle being made available at different quality and price. A surviving trade card of John Spilsbury advertised his dissected maps in a “chip box” for 10 shillings and sixpence, in a square box for 12 shillings, or without the sea for 7 shillings and sixpence; since the aim of the puzzle was to assemble the areas on the map, the blank area of the sea was superfluous (although to true jigsaw devotees nowadays it might be the most interesting challenge). The differing qualities of the two jigsaws here suggests that a better quality one was sold first, and a thinner, perhaps cheaper option was offered a little later.

Assembling one of these jigsaws is still an interesting test of one’s knowledge of the geography of England and Wales. It also brings home how much the English counties differ in size; the piece for Yorkshire is enormous, while Rutland is so tiny that it’s amazing it has survived. One of the puzzles has unfortunately lost Berkshire; it probably went down the back of a sofa at some point between the 1770s and the puzzle being given to an Oxford charity shop, from where it made its way to the Bodleian as a recent donation.

UPDATE: This blog previously stated that Berkshire and Oxfordshire were missing from one of the puzzles. Oxfordshire has now been found by the donor, although Berkshire is still missing and has probably been so for some time.

[The traveller’s companion, or the post roads of England and Wales, with the distances in measured miles.] London : Printed for & sold by Robt. Sayer No. 53 Fleet Street, [1775?]. (E) C17 (806)

The traveller’s companion, or the post roads of England and Wales, with the distances in measured miles. London : Printed for & sold by Robt. Sayer No. 53 Fleet Street, [1775?] John Johnson Collection, Ballam Coll. Dissected Puzzles 50

Further reading: Norgate, M. (2007). Cutting Borders: Dissected Maps and the Origins of the Jigsaw Puzzle. The Cartographic Journal, 44(4), 342–350. https://doi.org/10.1179/000870407X241908