The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-11 00:00:00

BRADSHAW'S MAP OF RAILWAYS.

Bradshaw's Map of the Railways, &c., of Great
Britain. Engraved by John Dower. W. J.
Adams.
It is difficult to afford any adequate notion of
the merits of this remarkable production by a mere
account of it—no matter how scrupulously accu-
rate, or laboriously minute the description. A
single glance over its broad surface would tell more
than two or three columns of explanation. Never-
theless, a few particulars as to the variety of infor-
mation here compacted together, may enable those
who have not already examined the map for them-
selves, to conjecture the extent, the value, and the
novelty of its elaboration.
Unlike any similar work of art yet produced,
Bradshaw's Map of Great Britain comprises in one
comprehensive chart what has hitherto been scat-
tered over a number of entirely distinct publica-
tions. Hitherto the public has been furnished
with maps variously devoted to one or other
of the different subjects here presented to the
eye simultaneously. It must be remembered,
moreover, that we speak thus not in dis-
paragement of any preceding enterprise, but
rather out of the fullness of our appreciation
of the one which has at last been accomplished.
" It is not that I love Ctesar less, but that I love
Rome more." Several of the former maps already
alluded to, several of those maps which have been
restricted to the delineation exclusively of some
one among what are here but the various features
of a larger and more ambitious undertaking, have
been distinguished by peculiar excellence both in
purpose and in the manner in which that purpose
has been realised. Without going any farther for
illustration, we may specify for example Macaulay's
Map of the Railways as beyond all doubt the best
of the kind yet issued from the press—giving, as
it does, with surprising exactitude the whole of the
different trunk lines, as well as of the various
branches, marking out at the same time each of
the numerous stations, and doing all this with
especial regard to completeness and authenticity.
Insomuch that we take the result of all this labour
on the part of the originator to be about the hap-
piest that could have been witnessed under the
circumstances. But, excellent as it is, it is simply
a map of the railways. And so on, we might enu-
merate a long catalogue of similar productions,
dedicated now to this system in the commercial
enterprise of the country, now, to that fea-
ture in its appearance geographically. The
superiority of Bradshaw's Map of the Rail-
ways, Iw., of Great Britain; consists in this—
that it embraces the whole of those diversi-
fied advantages in one bold and comprehensive
publication. Its principal characteristic is its ver-
satility. Admirable as its accuracy unquestion-
ably is in its delineation of the complex webwork
of the English railways, that is by no means its
paramount merit as a compilation. Briefly, in
the title of the Map before us the word " Rail-
ways" implies less than the significant
" &c.," most suggestive of typographical hie-
roglyphics ! Under that mysterious sign, there
are hinted all the motley attractions of the
chart as the medium of an astonishing amount
of valuable and important information. For
a careful scrutiny of the Map here unrolled before
the community will speedily enough assure us that
something else is supplied by it beyond merely a
huge store of useful railway intelligence. It de-
picts the Railways, of course, minutely—particu-
larising as well those which have been positively
commenced as those which are, up to the present
moment, in actual operation. It portrays the
Rivers threading the surface of the island—distin-
guishing those which are from those which are not
navigable. It delineates the Canal System, and
with what scrupulous care may be conjectured when
we observe that there are here marked, in fact, the
height, above the level of the sea at low water, of the
principal pools and points of communication. It
specifies, in like manner, the respective altitude in
feet (above the same world-wide level) of the British
Hills and Mountains. Beyond the boundary of
the coast, it points out the numerous Sands and
Shoals, together with a really extraordinary num-
ber of Soundings. These soundings, of course,
are in every instance expressed in fathoms, and
they extend frequently into the wide sea, as, for
example, midway between the Isle of Man and
the port of Birkenhead. In this manner we
' can perceive at a glance not merely the depth
all along the different portions of the coast, but
detect the precise spot where it is only 19 fathoms
1 in the very midst of St. George's Channel, nearly
midway between Wicklow and the extreme point
of Carnarvon. In the same manner we can dis-
tinguish the several localities in the middle of the
Straits of Dover, where the water runs as shallow
as 14, or 10, or even 6, or actually, at some parts,
not more than 4 fathoms. Besides giving us in
this way, as we have observed, the sands,
and shoals, and soundings, Bradshaw's Map
of Great Britain carefully particularises the
Anchorage. It does more than this—it indi-
cates the Buoys and Rocks, and the Beacons, and
the Lighthouses. Added to all which it defines with
admirable distinctness the Mineral Districts of Great
Britain, indicating by appropriate symbols coal,
lead, tin, copper, slate, gold, silver, marble, granite,
china-stone, lime-stone, free-stone, iron-stone, co-
balt, antimony, and manganese. The mineral
wealth of England, by the way, is sufficiently well,
we conjecture, intimated by that same marvellous
enumeration.
It is perhaps to be regretted that having adven-
tured so far in their remarkable enterprise, the
originators of Bradshaw's Map of the Railways, &c.,
of Great Britain, had not yet ventured yet a little
further so as to carry it out at once to what we be-
lieve must
i inevitably prove its ultimate develop-
ment. It sto be regretted, we mean, that having
extended the limits of the chart westwards to a
portion of Ireland, and northwards to a portion of
Scotland, they were not extended yet more north-
wards and yet more westwards so as to expand the
map from a large oblong into a larger square—
thereby embracing the whole, instead of a division
of the United Kingdom, in one noble publication.
This extension of the undertaking we look to, in
the end, with the utmost confidence. Until it be
effected, the map, however masterly in other
respects, must still continue capable of an
obvious improvement. It may appear captious to
talk thus of a production in all other particulars
so entirely satisfactory. Nevertheless, in speaking
thus, we are by no means carping at the good
already accomplished ; we are only eager that it
should be rendered yet more brilliantly and in-
structively apparent. Besides—we are alluding to
a change which, we believe, in the progress of
time must prove absolutely unavoidable. The inter-
nal development of the resources of Ireland especially,
the improvement of its commercial arrangements,
the multiplication of its canals and railroads, and
the gradual transformation of this island into the
channel of social, political, and mercantile inter-
course between the mother country and her North
American possessions—must, before many years
have elapsed, so wonderfully affect the interests of
the three kingdoms, that Ireland can no longer be
excluded from a map like this, representing the
power, and the wealth, and the industrial activity
of the British population.
Regarded simply as it is, Bradshaw's Map of the
Railways, &c., of Great Britain, must be recognised
as a marvel of ingenuity, and the fruit of a really
admirable enterprise. It constitutes a visible epi-
tome of the mighty conquests made by the Anglo-
Saxon race in their memorable march—a march not
of decades but of centuries—along the broad and
holy track of civilisation.

T.HE REGISTRATIONS.

WEST SURREY.

Archer Ryland, Esq., the Revising Barrister, held.
his Fourth Court at the Bush Inn, Farnham, on Satur-
day last, and revised the following parishes :—Ash and
Normandy, Elstead, Farnham, Frensham, and Seale
and Tongham.
Mr. G. Edgar Dennes, solicitor, of London, and Mr.
Holiest, solicitor, of Farnham, attended for the Re-
formers. The Tories were not represented.
The result of the day's revision was, that the Re-
formers sustained all their objections and all their new
claims, and had a majority of 58. There were no Tory
objections.