170. John Lloyd Warden Page 1893

The Victorian age brought out the urge for people to wander and  the freedom to do so. This was accompanied by a stream of guidebooks, some like the much earlier William Camden eager to list and describe the antiquities and histories, some in the style of a modern guide book suggesting walks and places to visit. Among these was a charming work The Rivers Of Devon. Taking the river as the starting point the author, John Lloyd Warden Page, describes the countryside to be found along the banks of most of the rivers of Devon. Possibly as a companion volume he wrote The Coasts Of Devon which appeared in 1895 (172).

Warden Page was a local historian and geographer who had already produced books such as An Exploration of Dartmoor and its Antiquities, also An Exploration of Exmoor and the Hill Country of West Somerset (London. Seeley & Co. 1890, 1895) as well as Okehampton: its Castle. To complete his river book, a map of the rivers of Devon was placed opposite the last page (p. 348). The map, a photo-lithograph, was printed by James Akerman of London and drawn by John Lloyd Warden Page himself. The book was published by Seeley & Co. of Essex Street in the Strand and printed by Billing & Sons of Guildford.

The map, as the title suggests, shows all the main rivers and most of the important tributaries. It also shows major roads and the railways with both the Great Western and London and South Western lines labelled. It delineates Dartmoor giving the heights of most of the better known tors (and some other hills such as Dunkery Beacon on the Somerset border). Interestingly not all canals are  shown; while the Bude Canal, used until 1891, can be identified, the canals from Morwellham to Tavistock and Bideford to Great Torrington are missing, possibly because they were no longer important.

Size: 245 x 225 mm.                                                                                                                                                        Eight Miles to the Inch.

MAP OF THE RIVERS OF DEVON in a square frame (Ea) which also contains the explanation to symbols used for towns, villages, principal roads and elevations scale. Signature J Ll Warden Page fecit 1893 (Ae). Imprint: Photo-lithographed & Printed by James Akerman. 6 Queen Square. WC. (EeOS