111 John Dower / Thomas Moule 1834

Thomas Moule published books and papers on topography, history, genealogy, heraldry and architecture. Born in 1794 at St Marylebone he was a bookseller in Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, from about 1816 until 1823, when he became Inspector of blind letters. He was also Chamber-keeper in the Lord Chamberlain’s Department with official residence in the Stable Yard of St James’ Palace, where he died on 14th January 1851.

Moule’s English Counties was issued as a part-work¹, including maps of each English county and town plans, including Plymouth and Devonport, between 1830 and 1836 before being combined from 1837 to form The English Counties Delineated. The maps, engraved on steel, were also sold individually as Moule’s Pocket County Maps. Although some early issues of these maps may be found in contemporary colour-wash most have recent colour. At least eight states of Berks were published 1837-1839; it is likely that different states of Devon remain to be discovered.

The three engravers employed by Moule were Schmollinger, who engraved perhaps the most decorative county maps (see 115), John Bingley and John Dower, who engraved most of the west country maps. Early examples of Devon have the engraver’s name; John Crane Dower (fl.1820-47), a specialist map engraver who worked from premises at 6, Cumming Place, Pentonville throughout his career. He engraved a large-scale map of Great Britain in 1839 for Samuel Lewis². It showed roads, rivers, canals and railways at a scale of five miles to the inch. He died in 1847. His son and successor was John James Dower (b.1825) who was very active in the second half of the nineteenth century producing work for the Weekly Despatch (see Victorian Maps of Devon, entry 136) and Hobson’s Fox-hunting Atlas (see 116). Another son, Frederick James (b.1829), was also a map engraver, serving an apprenticeship with Alexander Findlay in the 1840s.

Moule’s English Counties was reprinted in 1839. After this the Rev. James Barclay reissued the maps in his A Complete and Universal English Dictionary, issued in parts, from 1842: first published under the imprint of F Sprent & Co., then by Geo. Henry & Co. (after issue 10 of 31 parts). The Dictionaries were reprinted frequently until c.1858 and being slightly smaller than Moule’s original, maps were often trimmed. Circa 1847 Devon can be found with 29 other counties in The History of England by Hume and Smollett, a popular history of the time which was extended by Edward Farr to cover the first ten years of Queen Victoria’s reign.

Size 185 x 245 mm.                                                                                                                                               Scale 1M = 2.1 mm.

DEVONSHIRE. Imprint: Engraved for MOULES’ ENGLISH COUNTIES by I. Dower. (CeOS). Vignette of the GUILDHALL EXETER. Arms of Bishop of Exeter and Hugh, 2^nd Earl Fortescue.