Proc. Hampsh. Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 47, 1991, 181-189

JOHN NORDEN'S 'SPECULUM BRITANNIAE: PARS - THE ISLE OF WIGHT' AND SOME ELIZABETHAN MANUSCRIPT MAPS OF THE ISLAND

By FRANK KITCHEN

ABSTRACT By now Norden had completed a description of Middlesex but as no financial support had This paper introduces and presents a description of the Isle of yet materialised he published it at his own Wight written in 1594 by the important cartographer John Norden. The provenance of his map of the Isle is discussed expense, again dedicated to Burghley. The and several other contemporary manuscript maps are con- following year a third Pars of the Speculum - for sidered. One of these is suggested as the source of the well Essex - was finished and Norden presented known map used by Speed in his atlas of 1611. manuscript copies to the Earl of Essex as well as to Burghley (Ellis 1840, ix—xxv). However, John Norden was born about the time of the neither Lord offered financial support so in death of Henry VIII and after graduating MA 1595 he made a supreme effort with the pro- from Hart Hall, Oxford began a career as a duction of a manuscript volume including lawyer. The first twenty years of his practice descriptions and maps of Middlesex, Essex, seem to have been mainly for country gentry; an Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey and the islands of occupation which led him about the country Wight, Jersey and Guernsey. This volume was and involved him deeply in land leases, ten- presented to the Queen with a pathetic cover- ures, management and survey. Early in the ing letter describing his hardship and travails 1590s he conceived his Speculum Brilanniae - The but Elizabeth was not moved. Mirror of Britain - a series of pocket guide Slowly Norden put the venture down. Dur- books to the counties of Britain, each to have a ing the next ten years he wrote perhaps three county map (Ravenhill 1972, 14). In 1591 he more descriptions: of Hertfordshire, Cornwall prepared the first Pars of this work, a manu- and possibly Kent (Gough 1768, I, 441). Even- script description of Northamptonshire which tually he gave up the task to concentrate on his he presented to Lord Burghley in the hope of work as a land surveyor and, apart from a gaining his patronage (British Library Maps, successful text on surveying, he confined his c7, b20). This was not forthcoming but in 1593 writing to devotional work and a traveller's the Privy Council did issue Norden with a guide promoting his invention of the trian- warrant to allow him 'to travail through gular distance tables so familiar in road atlases England and Wales to make more perfect today. He had a successful career both as description, charts and maps'. The Council surveyor and religious writer: he published instructed the 'Lieutenants of Counties, May- some 14 religious books, one of which went to ors, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace and all others 40 editions and 'sold much better than the of Her Majesties officers and loving subjects . . . most successful of Shakespeare's Quartos' to permit and suffer the said J. Norden quietly, (Pollard 1926, 238). As a surveyor he became and without any manner of let or hindrance, to variously Surveyor of Crown Woods and Fore- travel and pass from place to place', and sts, of the Duchy of Cornwall, and in 1612, of requested those who could to help with him the King's Castles (Cal SP Domestic, xii, 4; 'sight and view' of any 'ancient muniments, lxxi, 43). books, rolls or records, that may further or help Despite the failure of the Speculum Britanniae, his work' (Historic Manuscript Commission, the county maps Norden prepared for it had 7th Report, Lowndes Mss, 540). some success. Those for Hampshire, Hert- 182 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

fordshire, Kent, Middlesex, Sussex and Surrey parte of Wiltesex and other places, maybe were used to illustrate the 6th edition of supposed to receyue denomination as from Camden's Britannia and John Speed 'augmen- them: 'Vite' or 'Wite' althowgh ther appeare ted' and used Norden's maps of Cornwall, sundrie opininons of the name as of the Lati- Sussex, Surrey, Middlesex, Essex and perhaps nes, or Romaynes, 'Vectis Insula'. As an Northamptonshire and Hampshire in his Islande carried from the mayne wherof it county atlas - The Theatre of the Empire of Great seemeth most probable to take name which Britain - i n 1611 (Laxton 1976). agreeth with the Britons who called it 'Gueid' The manuscript presented to the Queen or 'Guith' which signifieth 'diuorticum': a sep- which contained the description and map of eration. the Isle of Wight was probably placed in the The soyle of the Islande is affirmed to be Queen's Library but it was removed, doubtless vcric frutefull, aboundinge with cattel, corne, during the Civil War, and went through pasture, meadow, wood, fishe and fowle. numerous adventures before most of the vari- This Islande is now in length abowt 20 miles ous parts into which it had been split were as appeareth and 10 miles in breadth. But united in the British Museum in 1881 (British Bcdc reportheth it to be in his time 30 miles in Library, Add MS 31853). Most of the various length & 12 miles in bredth, which argueth a Pars of the Speculum which Norden completed decrease, confirming therby the separation. have been published since his death, the In the Britons time it was gouerned by a exceptions being those for Sussex, Hampshire, perticular Kinge from whom Vespasian, who Surrey, and the three islands. was sent into Brytayne by Claudius, subdued Norden's description of the Isle of Wight it to the Romaynes from whom after it was by adds little to our knowledge of the island in the them manie years enioyed. It was wonne late Elizabethan period, for on his own admis- agaync by the sowth saxon kings who helde the sion he did not visit the Isle, but it might be same tributarie untill it was agayne enforced considered of interest if only for the light it from them in the time of Athelwalde, a sowth sheds upon the confused state of knowledge of saxon kinge, by Cedwallo who slew Arualde, the island's past in 1595 and as a step towards Kinge of the Islande and helde the dominion the complete availability of this unique thcrof in his owne handes, by means of this document. usurped title wherof after him his successors were accompted kinges. This isle was firste conuerted to the SPECULUM BRITANNIAE: PARS - THE Christian knowledge by Wilfride B[ishop]. of ISLE OF WIGHT Yorke, to whome the same Cedwallo gaue 300 tenements in regarde of his preaching to then- habitantes. A Brief Commemoration of the Wight, Garnsey & In the time of H:l [Henry I] it was belonging Jersey to Baldewine of Redvers, called de Reduerys, Islands united bothe in ccclesiasticall and from whom K Stephen forceblye inuested the ciuell gouerment unto Hamshire and in that same. But was restored to his inheritance ther regard I thowght it fitt to remember them agaync by H:3 who made him Earle of ye thowgh I haue not traueyled in them but Wight after warde it came to Willm de For- reporting the description as the workes of tibus by mariage of the dawghter of Willm other men. Legrosse, E. of Awmarle [Albemarle], wife to The Wighte, an Islande as it were removed the seyde Baldwin in whose righte he became or separate by the working of the sea from the E. of Wight, Awmarle & Deuon. In whose lyne prouince of the 'Vites', a people of Germanie it contynued untill Isabell de Fortibus, sole of whom Bede sayth came also the Kentish heir unto the former Earldomes, yielded the men, which 'Vites' also possessing Hamshire, Wighte to E:3, contynunge in the possession of KITCHEN: JOHN NORDEN'S 'SPECULUM BR1TANNIAE 183 the crowrie till H:6 dignified Henrye Beau- and full of detail with a heavy load of place champe, sonne to the Lo. Richarde, E of names, but often with variant spellings to the Warwike, with the crowne therof as also of above text and Boazio's inscriptions. Norden Garnesey and Jarsey with other titles of high also softens the rather exaggerated hills of honour. Boazio's map. (For a reproduction of both This island hath bene often assaulted by the maps, see Turley 1976.) French as in the 1 yeare of Ric:2, the 5 of H:4 It is not known when Norden's map of &the37ofH:8. 'Hamshire' was published; the only extant state dates from c 1655 but it had obviously Things conteyned in the mappe of the Whighte: been printed extensively before for at this time the plate was showing clear and heavy signs of The Nedles, certayne sharpe rockes at the w. wear. This only known state of the printed ende of the Islande map omitted the border which contained the Whitewell Browndowne Wursley Sharpenode maps of the three islands (Laxton 1976). It has chyne Towre been suggested that Norden's map of the Isle Brooke Worder Fresh-water Rowner of Wight was copied by Mercator for his Atlas Motteson Ashe Wouluerton Brixston of 1595 and that, further, all three - Norden's, Shorwell Swaynston Quar Shalfleete Mercator's and Boazio's - ultimately derive Newton Gurner Pauue Areton from 'a common original, no longer extant' ye Cowe, E. Cowe Northwood (Turley 1974, 55). However, given that Nord- called en's manuscript was only presented to the W.Cow Whip- Wotton Cairebroke Newporte Queen with hope of publication under his own pingham name in that year, it seems more likely that ye Castle Brading Ryde Nenwall Mercator's was, like Norden's, based on the Compton Sande heade St. Helene Bens ted already published Boazio map; indeed, Mer- St. Salter Calburne Gatcombe cator's is much closer in execution to Boazio's Kateryne map than to Norden's. Like the earlier map, hill Mercator's island is heavily covered with hills; Chale Kingstone Whitwell Godds hill both exaggerate the undercliff in the south of Thorley Nighton St. St. Boniface the island which Norden did not show; and Laurence Mercator showed the same six fire beacons, Appledore- Butbridge Binbridge Sandham marked with the same symbol of a laddered combe Castle standard, whilst Norden showed only two (There are no descriptions for Jersey and beacons, marked with the 'three prick' mark Guernsey, only an index to the maps.) that he used on his map of Hampshire. All of this suggests that both Norden's and Mer- The map of the island mentioned above, to- cator's maps were based on Boazio's; Mer- gether with matching small maps of 'Iarsey' cator's more closely than Norden's. There and 'Garnesay', served as the right hand seems no need for the lost 'Ur' map, drawn border of Norden's beautifully executed perhaps, it has been suggested, in connection manuscript map of Hampshire in the Queen's with the defence preparations. against the volume, each island set in a barrel shaped Armada (Turley 1974, 55). cartouche, one above the other. As Norden Certainly, many such maps were drawn to obviously did not survey the Island, it seems accompany surveys of the defences of various likely that for his map he copied that of parts of England's coast in the 'Armada' years Baptista Boazio, the earliest printed map of and a number have survived (see, for example, the Island, which had been published in 1591 British Library Royal 18, D, iii or Add. MS (British Library Maps, c2, all). Like Boazio's 57494, a deputy Lieutenant's survey of the map, Norden's is small (105 mm x 105 mm) Sussex coast). As no part of the coast con- Fig 1. BL Royal 18, I), iii, 17/18. Reproduced with the kind permission of the British Library BL Royal I B D 111 17/1B O MILES

Fig 2. Line drawing of BL Royal 18, D, iii, 17/18. 186 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY cerned the Privy Council in these years as 'Italianate' bastioned trace after 1597. How- closely as Hampshire and the Isle of Wight it is ever, on the mainland, the forts at Hurst, to be expected that some might have survived 'Hasellorde' and Southsea are drawn in a very and, indeed, in the Public Record Office there careful, exact manner, Southsca, finished in are three such maps. The first dates from 1585 1545, meticulously so. Haselworth Castle is and was probably drawn by Richard Popinjay, shown complete and entire as a tall cylindrical Surveyor of Works at Portsmouth. He certainly tower surrounded by a lower circular curtain drew the other two in 1587 and they were sent wall, much as shown on the Cowdray Print of to the Privy Council by the Earl of Sussex, the battle off Portsmouth in which the Mary Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire in March. Rose was lost in 1545. Haselworth Castle was However, all three were concerned with the reputedly 'beaten downe by King Philip' for Spithcad and Solent coasts and showed only not firing a salute when he sailed past towards very crude sketch outlines of the northern his marriage with Queen Mary although a shore of the Island and could hardly have more likely fate was decommissioning and aided the cartographers (See French, 'Sea Beg- decay following a survey of Portsmouth's de- gars'). However, there are in the British fences made in 1556 (British Library Add. MS Library two fine, clear sixteenth century 16371a; Colvin 1982, 514). manuscript maps of the island which probably These events suggest that the map was pre-date Boazio's map. The first (figs 1 and 2) made between 1545 and 1556, probably early is bound with a set of pre-production proofs of within that span; the treatment of Southsea Saxon's Atlas of 1579 along with a number of Castle suggests pride in a newly completed other manuscript maps (British Library Royal work, and on the island the park to the west of 18, D, iii, 17/18). This volume belonged to Carisbrooke is marked as belonging to 'The Burghley and to judge from the annotations in Kyng' - Edward VI died in 1553. Some of the his hand to nearly all the maps, was well used. settlements have owner's names affixed and all This provides a terminus ad quern for the these are agreeable to these suggested dates. enclosed maps of 1598, the year of Burghley's The only doubt is 'Mr Erlesman' at 'Colburne'. death, but it is likely that the map of the Isle of Earlesman bought half the manor of Westover Wight, like the others, is very much earlier. alias Calbourne in 1556; the other half in 1564 The map is well coloured, at a scale of f (Victoria County History, 5, 219). However, it inch to the mile. With one exception, all the is possible that he was a tenant before he island's churches are conventionally shown bought the manor. with a square tower at the western end topped As well as the forts already mentioned there with a spire and a smaller chancel at the appears to be an anonymous squat bulwark at eastern end. Only a church marked at Ryde Freshwater Bay although, unlike the others differs from this convention in having no spire shown on the map, it does not fly a flag. It is or chancel and with its tower at the eastern possible that it represents a store house built end. However, as Ryde, Ashey, Nunwell and in the 1550s 'for sauingc of Thordinaunce Budbridge did not have churches at this time, appointed in that place' (Kcnyon 1979, 63). It these signs must be read as conventional sym- is also possible that the curious device at bols for a village rather than a church. The Ncttleston Point near St. Helens, apparently a island's gunforts are also treated conven- masonry circle, was the small gun position tionally: the Sharpnode bulwark and Yarm- built sometime between 1539 and 1552. The outh Castle are shown as squat cylinders; area was vulnerable to foreign incursion as the West Cowes and Sandown forts are slightly events of 1545 had shown (Colvin 1982, more elaborate. Only Carisbrooke Castle is 549-50). The actual point is still known as given realistic treatment, the oblong earthwork 'The Old Fort' and was marked as such on a that once led to belief in a Roman Carisbrooke 1769 map of the Isle. A list of charges for the fort showing clear before its conversion to a Royal forts made towards the end of Henry L I - Ti.C~&*. m v V * ' £ £ "j*A*n>4 1 " <2H&* ji

— Fig 3. BL Cott. Aug. I, i, 28. Reproduced with the kind permission of the British Library BL Cott Aug t i 2S O CBS TO ~i 1 i 1 r I i i 1 r

Fig 4. Line drawing of BL Cott. Aug. I, i, 28. KITCHEN: JOHN NORDEN'S 'SPECULUM BRITANNIAF 189

VIII's reign and into Edward's refers to work topography, this cannot be said for the wild carried out at St Helens (Kenyon 1979, 76). sweeping lines of the coast which, curiously, The second manuscript map (figs 3 and 4) is are more closely allied to the well known map in the Cotton collection of the British Library, 'described by William White Gent. Augmen- labelled on the reverse 'Description of the Isle ted and published by' John Speed in his Theatre of Wight'. Although it shows towns, villages in 1611. The coast line in both these maps and houses of note, it gives great prominence exaggerates the depth of bays, prominance of to the Island's fortifications, even marking headlands and width of waterways in a similar Worsley's Tower which was built in the 1520s way and suggests a 'mental map' drawn by eye and by the last years of Elizabeth's reign in a without even the relatively simple surveying sorry condition. It was not marked on the techniques of the Elizabethan cartographer. above Armada surveys. The map also shows Little is known about William White (Turley clearly a system of 11 laddered beacons. The 1974) and even less of the provenance of this map is 40 cm by 29 cm, the sea coloured with a manuscript 'description' map, so the assump- light blue wash; the land in light green with tion of a relationship between them must be light shading for the hills. A 'Scala Miloria' speculative, but could this be the 'description' shows a scale of i inch to the mile. by 'William White Gent.' that Speed 'augmen- The general shape and configuration of the ted and published'? map in Burghley's atlas clearly had no influ- ence on the Boazio/Mercator/Norden 1590s series of maps and the Cotton map is even ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS further removed: the hills, waterways, beacons and, above all, the outline of the coast, differ Acknowledgements and thanks are offered to the markedly from the 1590s series. Although the Public Record Office and the British Library for hills on the Cotton map might be thought to be their permission to reproduce the maps. a more accurate representation of the island's

REFERENCES Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 8 & 9. surveyor & religious writer', The Library, Colvin H M et al 1982 The History of the King's Works, 4 new series, iii, 233-252. pi 2. Ravenhill, W 1972 John Norden's Manuscript Maps of Ellis, Sir H (ed) \M0John Norden, Speculum Britanniae: Cornwall and its Nine Hundreds, Exeter. Pars Essex. This is an edition of Burghley's Turley, R V 1974 'Printed county maps of the Isle of copy. The Earl of Essex's is British Library Wight: 1590-1870', Proc 39, 53-64. Add MS 33769. Gough, Richard 1768 British Topography, 1. British Library Maps, c7, b Historic Manuscript Commission, 7th Report, British Library Maps, c2, all Lowndes Mss. British Library Add MS 16371a Kenyon, J R 1979 'An aspect of the .1559 survey of British Library Add MS 31853 the Isle of Wight. . .', Post Medieval Archaeo- British Library Add MS 57494 logy, 13, 61-77. British Library Cott Aug, I, i, 28 Laxton, P 1976 250 Years of Map Making in Hampshire: Public Record Office MPF 208 & SP 12/182/41 1575-1826. Public Record Office MPF 134 & SP 12/199/23 Pollard, A W 1926 'The Unity of John Norden: Public Record Office MPF 135 & SP 12/199/24

Author: F Kitchen, 153 Greenways Crescent, Shoreham by Sea, BN43 6HP

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