Old Sussex Mapped

Cole's Sussex, 1808
 

Contents

Despite the note on this and other maps in the same series, the full edition of The Beauties of England and Wales, by John Button, E.W. Bayley and others, published in 18 volumes between 1801 and 1815 does not normally contain the maps. The Sussex section is volume 14 published in 1813. The maps together with town plans were published in parts and sold as a separate series between 1804 and 1810. A prospectus of 1804 states that although the maps were designed to correspond in size and could be bound with The Beauties…, it was recommended that the maps be bound to form a separate quarto atlas.

Book title: The British atlas; comprising a series of county maps…intended to illustrate and accompany 'The beauties of England and Wales, published under the direction and superintendence of the authors of that work. Part 19. London, 'Printer for the Proprietors' 1808.

Map Title: Sussex. London; Published for the Proprietors by Vemor, Hood & Sharpe, Poultry. March 1st, 1808. Engraved by J. Roper, from a drawing by G. Cole, to accompany The Beauties of England and Wales. Scale - 10 mi = 28 mm. RAPES. EXPLANATION. Longitude 5'. Latitude 5'.

 No biographical information about G. Cole has been found, in spite of the fact that he drew nearly all the county maps and most of the town plans in this series, and that his work was copied by others.

John Roper also engraved Wilkinson's Atlas Classica.
Baldwin, Cradock and Joy were succeeded by Charles Cradock and Company and also published for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. They went out of business in 1857, following a fire in Paternoster Row. At this period fires seem to have been a recurring hazard in the book trade.

Henry George Collins ceased trading in 1858, when his stock was auctioned off, probably as a result of financial failure.

Joseph Nightingale (1775-1824), the author, was born at Chowlent and Lancashire. He came to London in 1805, and worked in a number of publications, including The Beauties of England and Wales… He was an active Methodist. In 1809 he was awarded £200 in a libel suit against john Stockdale.