138A. John Cary / George Frederick Cruchley 1859

George Frederick Cruchley was already publishing a large-scale map of Devon (see previous entry, 138) when he reissued the Cary plates originally used in the early 1820s. Cary's Improved Map of England and Wales with a considerable part of Scotland consisted of a total of 65 nearly square maps and was first published in parts by John Cary in London between 1820 and 1830. Cary sold the sheets as a boxed set of folding maps and as an atlas in 1832. After Cruchley obtained the maps he continued to sell each sheet separately in covers as Cruchley's Reduced Ordnance Map of England and Wales, and in a variety of different covers, each section being approximately 500 by 630 mm.

Cruchley even went to the lengths of cutting six maps to size to compile a map of Devon from the five sheets containing Devon plus a Somerset sheet. The map is a complete county map and comprises sheets 2 and 3, 10 and 11, 16 and 17 of the Improved Map in their entirety, i.e. full width and height. Map sheets 2, 3, 9, 10 and 16 show Devon: sheet 17 is mainly Somerset but includes small parts of Devon, southwest and southeast of Dulverton. The sheets were not all printed at the same time; careful inspection of sheet 3 reveals the date 1851. This was originally "Revised to 1851". Other sheets may be of later date. Railways are consistent with a date of approx. 1859.

Twenty years later maps would be published by George Richmond¹ including a map of Exeter in c.1877. George Richmond was baptised September 1^st, 1822 in Uley, Gloucestershire. He married Mary Ann Case at Stratford in 1852 when he was listed as Commercial Traveller. The following year his first child was registered in Birmingham. Richmond was first registered as Mapseller in 1864 and the first published map found for him is dated 1868. He produced his adaptations of the Cary maps between 1875-1893. A number are reported at major libraries.

The sheets were used again by Westley and Seeley c.1890 for a map of the Torquay area; by A H Swiss for his fox-hunting maps in c.1890 (see entry 166); and parts appeared in the Homeland Handbooks at the end of the century in guides by Cresswell.

Size: 1435 x 1265mm.  Scale of English Miles (20 = 265mm) Miles.

A separate paper label with title "From the ORDNANCE SURVEY" has been added centrally top. All five Devon sheets, with Sheet 17 (north Somerset), have been carefully trimmed on two (2, 3, 16 and 17) or three sides (9 and 10) and pasted together to form one map. Imprints: LONDON: PUBLISHED BY G F CRUCHLEY, MAP‑SELLER & GLOBE MAKER, 81, FLEET STREET (BeOS) and LONDON: PUBLISHED BY G F CRUCHLEY, MAP‑SELLER & GLOBE MAKER, 81, FLEET STREET (LATE CARYS) (DeOS). Two scale bars (BaOS and DaOS).Railway to Paignton, from there in blue to Kingswear.