67 George Cole / John Roper 1805

The British Atlas, a joint work of Cole (artist and cartographer) and Roper included maps and town plans drawn by George Cole and others and engraved by John Roper to accompany J Britton and E W Brayley’s The Beauties of England and Wales. This was a topographic work published in parts with Devon usually found bound and published together with Dorset in Volume IV with the original title page dated 1803.

The Cole and Roper maps appeared in Joseph Nightingale’s (fl.1806-20) English Topography and in Thomas Dugdale’s Curiosities of Great Britain or England and Wales Delineated. The latter was published by John Tallis until Lucinda Tallis took over her husband’s business when he died; their son, John Tallis, published this work with from c.1843. However, by this time Cole and Roper’s maps were progressively being replaced with maps in a similar style by Joshua Archer (see 119). Later, H G Collins used lithographs of Cole and Roper’s maps, and copies are found both in an untitled atlas and in Collins’ Railway and Pedestrian Atlas of England.

Copies of the counties in Britton and Brayley’s The Beauties of England and Wales are held by almost all major libraries but as they do not specify the exact volumes in their holdings, only the author´s copy is reported (as representative). Many of the multiple volume sets of Curiosities of Great Britain. England and Wales Delineated (1835) also contain An Alphabetical Chronology of Remarkable Events by Leonard Townsend, and a separate title page is present for this (final) volume (including the author´s 11-volume set).

John Hayman of Exeter prepared two maps of Exeter and one appeared in The Beauties of England and Wales. For a more detailed description of both the volume and John Hayman´s maps, see Kit Batten: The Exeter City Maps of John Hayman.

Size 175 x 230 mm.                                                                                                                                              SCALE (20 = 45 mm) Miles.

DEVONSHIRE. Four imprints: London; Published for the Proprietors by Vernor & Hood, Poultry; June 1st. 1805. (CeOS); Engraved by J. Roper, from a Drawing by G. Cole. (AeOS); to accompany the Beauties of England and Wales (EeOS); and Drawn and Engraved under the direction of J. Britton just below W. of Greenwich in border (Ce).

1. 1805  With no title page; published in parts.     BL, C, (DevA), (NDL), (DEI).
       
    The Beauties of England and Wales Vol. IV  
    London. Vernor, Hood and Sharp, and nine others. 1803 (1805).      KB.
       
    The British Atlas CCCXXXIX
    London. Vernor, Hood and Sharp, and nine others. 1810. BL, W, B, BCL.
       
    English Topography ... by the Rev. J Nightingale  
    London. Baldwin, Cradock & Joy. 1816.   CCCLIII, BL, B, W.
       
2. 1816 With imprint and signatures erased. Plate number 11 (EaOS) added.  
       
    English Topography ... by the Rev. J Nightingale  
    London. James Goodwin and Thomas McLean. 1816. BL.
       
3. 1827 Road to Minehead extended into county and note to Minehead added in Somerset. (DEI).
       
    English Topography ... by the Rev. J Nightingale  
    London.James Goodwin and Thomas McLean. 1816 (1827).  CCCLIV, RGS.
       
    Curiosities of Great Britain. England and Wales Delineated  
    London. Tallis & Co. 1835. C, KB.
       
    Curiosities of Great Britain or England and Wales Delineated. Volume II.  
    London. John Tallis. (1840).    AA.
       
4. 1854 Imprint: London. Published by Henry George Collins, Paternoster Row. (CeOS) with railways added. First lithograph version.  
       
    Atlas without title page – title on spine Collins England  
    London. Henry George Collins. (1854).    [C].
       
5. 1858   Page number added. There may be more railways added.  
       
    Collins’ Railway and Pedestrian Atlas of England  
    London. Darton & Co. (1858).  [BL, C].
       
    Collins’ Railway and Pedestrian Atlas of England  
    London. Darton & Co. and Collins brothers. (1858). [PMrs Green].