The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-31 00:00:00

entrails of their subjects, have also paid due attention (not without an
eye to strategic movements) to the bowels of the land " they inhabit,
and have encouraged the art of chartography in a truly munificent manner.
We do not find, however, that our requirements of this kind in our own
country are equally well provided for. The Ordnance survey is indeed
excellent as far it goes, but the one-inch scale, which for
general purposes is quite sufficient, and one sheet of which
is quite as much as the most intrepid tourist need carry with him
on a single excursion, has been dropped and taken up so often in obedience
to the vacillating votes of the House of Commons that its completion must,
we tear, be considered as a thing rather to be hoped for than expected.
There are two or three other scales on which the survey has been begun,
and those who are curious in such matters may see at the Crystia Palace
an index map in which the squares of different colours, like an insane
chessboard, show the strength of irresolution which the Legislature has
exerted on the subject. Of one of the most frequented tourist districts
of England, the " Lakes," there is no really good map, and in this, as in
many other conveniences of travelling, Cumberland and Westmoreland
fall far short of Switzerland and Savoy, although the country itself is
naturally much less difficult to explore. The map published by Messrs.
BLACK of Edinburgh is the best, but it is on too small a scale to enable a
traveller to rely wholly upon its aid for ascending a pike
or traversing a pass. The merits and defects of the various maps
of Scotland have recently proved a fruitful source of controversy in the
daily papers, and it certainly does not appear that any map of that country
exists of an entirely satisfactory description. Still we are able to say that
there are three of which the character is highly creditable. One of these
is published by Messrs. BLACK, and is called if we remember rightly, the
" Road and Railway Travelling Map of Scotland." Its special feature is
the accurate indication of such lines of road as are traversed by coaches,
and which are distinguished by different colours showing which of the coaches
run all the year, which in summer only, which every day, and which only on
certain days of the week. Another is that of KEITH JOHNSTON, remarkable
for the vast number of places marked upon it, but from its smaller size not
quite so accurate in respect of its physical geography. A third and much
larger one in six sheets, each of which would probably be found a con-
venient size for the pocket, is the one drawn by CARRINGTON, and published
by Messrs. STANFORD of Charing-cross. A mistake—namely, the marking
of a road which does not exist—was discovered in this map by a writer of
one of the letters to which we have referred; but this we imagine to be
an unfortunate exception which does not derogate in any material
degree from the general usefulness of the map. It is especially remarkable
for the elegant manner in which the mountain shadings are delineated,
and which convey an extremely correct notion of the watersheds, valleys,
and general bearings of each district ; and so far as we have examined the
portions with which we are practically acquainted, we have found it as
accurate as any map can be expected to be which is not based on those
elaborate and extensive surveys which none but a Government is able to
provide.