WRITING GEOGRAPHY: TRAVERSING EARLY MODERN ENGLISH CHOROGRAPHIES A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Department of English University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By ROBERT IMES © Copyright Robert Imes, August, 2020. All rights reserved PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis/dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis/dissertation in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis/dissertation work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis/dissertation or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis/dissertation. Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this thesis/dissertation in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of English 9 Campus Drive University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 Canada OR Dean College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies University of Saskatchewan 116 Thorvaldson Building, 110 Science Place Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5C9 Canada i ABSTRACT Early modern English chorographies are diverse, hybrid texts that defy reduction and reward curiosity. As a genre of geographical writing focused on locally-scaled, regional surveys, chorographies are characterized by their rich combinations of intellectual considerations and literary forms. To illuminate the conventions of style and subject matter that typify the chorography genre, this dissertation argues that chorographies are informed by their sustained and foundational engagements with travel. Chorographers travelled to conduct their surveys, they represented the perspectives of travellers, and they collated and structured chorographical information in the form of travel narratives; therefore, chorographies are a form of travel writing. Further, chorographies are texts that immerse their readers in the experience of travel. Readers navigate geographical space textually. In this way, geographical literacy is fostered by chorographical representations of travel. That is, chorographers enhanced, solidified, and made accessible local geographical knowledge by their travel writing and by their manner of organizing geographical information as a traveler might experience it. As I argue in this dissertation, although there existed a vast contemporary literature of instructional guides intended to inform and improve the act of travel, formal moves to standardize, or even to encourage, travel writing were infrequent and underdeveloped. There were no guidebooks to furnish a codified pedagogy of best practices for itinerant chorographers producing peripatetic chorographies, which contributed to the genre’s heterogeneity during this period. However, chorographies were social texts. As chorographers surveyed England in a grand, multigenerational project lacking formalized rules or guidelines, they found direction and purpose as a scholarly community, and they motivated and influenced one another in the development of their literature. As this dissertation explains, the discursive hybridity that characterizes this emergent genre was defined slowly, county-by-county, in chorographical prose and verse that is both idiosyncratic and communal, and which energizes and enriches English geographical discourse. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It gives me so much happiness to thank those who aided me in the course of this dissertation. First, I offer my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Brent Nelson, whose oversight was a constant wellspring of confidence and direction. I would also like to thank the members of my defence committee, Dr. Ron Cooley, Dr. Peter Robinson, Dr. Frank Klaassen, and Dr. Andrew McRae, for the patience of their support and for generously sharing their expertise. This dissertation is richer in having been read by them. I thank my parents, Harold and Sharleen, for the goodness of their loving example. I am grateful for the wisdom and strength of my aunt and uncle, Linda and Peter. I thank Jessica for inspiring me. I thank my friends for the joy of their company. This dissertation draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the J. B. Harley Research Trust and Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, The Literary Encyclopedia, and the Bibliographical Society of America. I am thankful too for the funding received for this project from the Department of English and the College of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. iii For Harold and Sharleen Imes iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PERMISSION TO USE....................................................................................................................i ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................iii DEDICATION................................................................................................................................iv TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES.........................................................................................................................vi INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 1. INSTRUCTING TRAVELLERS: THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH ARTES PEREGRINANDI................................................22 Background: Geographical Discourse and Travelogues.....................................................22 Building English Geographical Literacy............................................................................25 Guides for Navigators ........................................................................................................36 Guides for Pilgrims, Merchants, Surveyors, and General Travellers..................................53 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................64 2. CHOROGRAPHICAL JOURNEYS: CHARTING REGIONAL TRAVEL WRITING ..........................................................................66 3. A SEDENTARY SURVEY: ASSESSING WILLIAM BURTON’S ENCYCLOPEDIC LEICESTERSHIRE..........................105 4. DRAYTON’S PERIEGETIC CONCEIT: CHARACTERIZING POLY-OLBION’S MUSE AS A CHOROGRAPHER..............................131 Invocations of the Muse, and the Relationship between the Drayton Speaker and the Muse....................................137 Further Parsing the Muse’s Identity: The Muse as Protagonist, Albion, and Poem....................................................................149 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................161 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................166 Manuscripts......................................................................................................................181 v LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 Leland’s travels in Leicestershire, as recorded in the Itinerary.................................................74 2.2 Saxton’s map of Warwickshire and Leicestershire, from his Atlas...........................................81 2.3 Speed’s map of Leicestershire, from his Theatre....................................................................100 2.4 Smith’s 1602 map of Leicestershire and Rutland....................................................................100 3.1 Map of Leicestershire, from Burton’s Description of Leicester Shire (1622).........................113 vi INTRODUCTION John Leland’s poem Cygnea Cantio (1545), his swan song after years of ambitious, prolific antiquarian work, surveys “The verdant shores of the Isis / With intense eyes and newfound care.”1 The poem’s speaker is the eponymous swan, who floats down the Isis (i.e. the River Thames) and comments on points of interest observed along the banks. Tracing the length of the river from its upper reaches around Oxford to Greenwich’s Palace of Placentia, Henry VIII’s birthplace and residence, the poem is a paean to Leland’s king, and to Tudor England more generally. In the course of its journey, the swan’s attention gravitates to the architectural legacies of England’s monarchy: Henry V’s Syon Abbey, Henry IV’s Eton College, Henry VII’s Richmond Palace, and so on. The poem repeatedly promotes the envisioned future reign of Edward too by noting, for example, that at Hampton Court “the shiny purple caps of / Popish clergy” have been replaced by crosses, crowns, and columns . Bedecked with shining gems which foster and honour Their pupil, Edward, the sole delight