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1 The Fordham Collection at The RGS: An Introduction Author(s): M. J. Freeman and J. Longbotham Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 146, No. 2 (Jul., 1980), pp Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: Accessed: 14/10/ :00 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) and Blackwell Publishing are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal.

2 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION AT THE RGS: AN INTRODUCTION M. J. FREEMAN AND J. LONGBOTHAM The Fordham Collection consists of some 800 road travel books and maps bequeathed to the Society in 1929 by Sir Herbert George Fordham, carto-bibliographer. The Collection covers 12 different countries, Britain and France being the most strongly represented, and spans almost 300 years, starting in Fordham's interest in carto-bibliography dates from the early 1900s when he first began collecting in earnest, abroad as well as at home, and when he began work on the long sequence of publications which was eventually to gain him international recognition. Although not elected a Fellow until 1924, Fordham's contacts with the Society can be traced back to 1910 and over the years he developed a close correspondence with Heawood, the Society's Librarian, on different carto-bibliographical matters. The most noteworthy items in the Collection are the sixteentn and seventeenth century travel books covering Britain and various European countries. The true worth of the Collection to the geographer, however, is to be found in the holdings of British and French road-books of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. With publications such as Cary's New Itinerary and Paterson's Roads traced through successive editions and reprints, one is presented with a source which not only offers a store of information for charting and analysing the course of contemporary transport improvement, but one which in its very essence encapsulates that modernizing process. N FEBRUARY 1929, by the terms of the will of Sir Herbert George Fordham, the Royal Geographical Society came into the possession of a collection of road travel books and maps which was almost certainly unequalled in richness and scope at the time, and probably remains so even today. Covering in all twelve different countries and spanning close on three centuries (c ), the collection provides in itself a vivid reflection of the growing volume of road travel in a modernizing civilisation, but at the same time offers a store of information from which the geographical character, timing and mechanics of that growth may be studied. The purpose of the present paper is to offer readers a brief introduction to the Fordham Collection. This includes the background to the bequest, the range and details of its contents and its importance to the geographer. Although 50 years have now passed since the collection came into the Society's possession, it is sad to have to record that it has inspired remarkably little research. The reasons for this lack of interest need not concern us here. Of prime concern, though, is that the scope and value of the collection should at last be properly disseminated. The background to the bequest Herbert George Fordham (Plate VIII) was born at Odsey, Hertfordshire in 1854, the son of a well-known local brewer and maltster. After education at various private schools and at University College, London, he joined in the family business, assisting his father who was managing partner. A career in the brewing industry, however, seems to have been insufficient for the energies of the young Fordham and in 1882, he left to enter the legal profession, being called to the bar three years later. Sadly, his legal career was to be shortened by -> Dr M. J. Freeman is a demonstrator in geography at the University of Oxford and a Junior Research Fellow of Keble College. Mr J. Longbotham was a member of H.M. Diplomatic Service until his retirement in 1972.

3 PLATE VIII Sir Herbert George Fordham, (Reproduced by permission of R. V. Tooley, Esq.) See pp

4 ri Set s of tamps id by te British A,t1K tic Trity to ce 2S t 15 A Set of stamps issued by the British Antarctic Territory to commemorate the 150th Ann The portraits are those of the past presidents, set against an Antarctic background particular exploration or research of each one. (By courtesy of the Crown

5 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION 219 ill-health and, in 1888, he moved with his family to Switzerland. Upon the death of his father in 1891, Fordham returned to England and took over the running of the family business. Subsequently he also found time to embark upon a career in local government, a career which led ultimately to chairmanship of Cambridgeshire County Council and the award of a knighthood in His family, legal and local government commitments apart, Fordham cultivated throughout his life an incredible variety of other pursuits. He studied the geology, natural history and botany of Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire; he researched local antiquities; and most important, of course, he developed an interest in old maps and road-books which he later came to refer to as the 'science of carto-bibliography' (see GeogrlJ. 73: 585-6; Henshall, 1969). From the acquisition dates which appear on the inside covers of most of the items in the collection, it seems that Fordham first became seriously interested in collecting old maps and road-books around the turn of the century. He made nine purchases during the year 1900 and, thereafter, added to the collection almost continuously up until his death in 1929, by which time there were almost :1:; 30- X 7.,C 20 - x 10 - X 10 _ -::' -"0 ::: Fig. 1. The chronology of Fordham's collecting 800 individual volumes and maps. The precise chronology of Fordham's collecting is illustrated in Figure 1. The bulk of acquisitions were made in two distinctive periods: the years leading up to the First World War, and the years 1922 to Until about 1920, most of the items collected covered Great Britain. After this date, however, Fordham gave steadily more attention to France and the remaining countries of Europe, such that by the middle years of the decade almost half his annual purchases related to these areas. The scale of addition to the collection in the 1920s coincided, of course, with Fordham's years of retirement, when he had largely withdrawn from public life and was able to devote most of his energies to the pursuit of new material. The details extant concerning the sources or manner of Fordham's purchases are few. From his correspondence

6 220 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION with the RGS about the collection's worth (financial as well as bibliographical), it would appear that he was an assiduous reader of booksellers' catalogues, foreign as well as English. As a regular traveller at home and abroad, on the other hand, he would no doubt have gained many gems from chance browsing in the bookshops themselves. Fordham's obvious zeal for collecting found clear parallel in the degree of his commitment to developing the science of carto-bibliography through lecturing and publishing. His years as chairman of Cambridgeshire County Council obviously formed a valuable proving ground for public-speaking and from about 1910, he was regularly to be found addressing organizations such as the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the Bibliographical Society (see Henshall, 1969), as well as presenting courses of lectures in London and Cambridge (RGS Archives, 1923, 1928). Fordham naturally drew heavily on his collection in assembling material for the various papers and lectures. He was by no means averse to researching elsewhere though, and during the 1920s particularly, he made frequent working visits to Paris, among other things to study the Cassinis, their lives and their cartographical productions (RGS Archives, 1928). Sometimes Fordham's trips to the Continent also included a conference address, as in April 1923 when he read a paper, 'La liaison entre la carto-bibliographie et l'histoire', at the Fifth International Congress on the Historical Sciences in Brussels (Fordham, 1923). The combination of these different lecturing activities meant that by the mid-1920s Fordham had established himself as an authority on carto-bibliography, a place which received formal recognition when the Societe de Geographie awarded him a Gold Medal early in The pattern of Fordham's publishing displayed a similar level of intensity. Although the relative obscurity of his subject often made it extremely difficult to find suitable outlets-on several occasions he tried unsuccessfully to persuade the RGS to publish monographs he had written (RGS Archives, 1916, 1924a)-the effect was rather to intensify than to deter his publishing resolve and he frequently drew on personal resources to ensure printing. This became especially the case in later years when, in Fordham's own words, printing had became one of his principal interests in life, alongside travelling (RGS Archives, 1927a). For a man of substantial means, the level of financial outlay involved here would not have represented any great sacrifice. Fordham, however, was far from wealthy and, during the 1920s in particular, the family brewing business fell into a very poor state through the combination of the 1926 Coal Strike, a succession of bad harvests and the generally depressed state of agriculture (RGS Archives, 1926a,b; 1927b). That he was prepared to spend what little capital he possessed on printing offers a clear illustration of the kind of enthusiasm and commitment which he extended to his subject. One can divide Fordham's publications on carto-bibliography into a number of distinctive categories. Firstly, there are the studies of notable surveyors and map-makers, biographically as well as bibliographically considered. Secondly, there are the various sets of cartographic notes and the descriptive map catalogues. Thirdly, there are the many items dealing with road-books and itineraries, some forming semi-definitive essays, others providing interpretative notes, and, as one would expect of course, a number of straight bibliographies. In total, these amount to some 50 individual pieces, a remarkable tally when one considers that Fordham's interest in the subject dated only from the early 1900s. More remarkable still is that in each of the three subject areas, he succeeded in producing at least one work of outstanding merit. The monograph on John Cary,

7 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION 221 engraver and map-maker, published by Cambridge University Press in 1925, was, at that time, a model of its kind, as was also The Road-books and Itineraries of Great Britain which the Press published in the preceding year. In the field of cartography, meanwhile, Fordham's expertise is perhaps seen at its fullest in La Cartographie des Provinces de France, a Cambridge publication of And it was this particular line of work which eventually led the Soci&et de Geographie to honour him, as was mentioned above. For a person with such strong geographical interests, it comes as rather a surprise to find that Fordham did not become a Fellow of the RGS until 1924, at the age of almost 70. His contacts with the Society, however, began rather earlier. In 1910, for instance, he was corresponding with Scott Keltie, the RGS Secretary at the time, over the mounting of an exhibition of John Cary's maps, atlases and topographical works (RGS Archives, 1910). And in the years from about 1914, he developed a growing correspondence with Heawood, the Society's Librarian, a dialogue which continued almost uninterrupted up to Fordham's death in Heawood shared Fordham's intense interest in carto-bibliography and the two men were constantly exchanging reports of new finds. In this area, Fordham seems to have been more the expert: he had a remarkable eye for detail and pointed out minor slips by Heawood in no uncertain terms. Fordham's election as a Fellow came about largely as a result of promptings from Arthur Hinks, Scott Keltie's successor as RGS Secretary (RGS Archives, 1924b). Once elected, however, he took the initiative and, in the words of a subsequent letter to Hinks, began to take 'some anticipatory interest' in the Society's affairs (RGS Archives, 1924c). The eventual outcome was twofold. He settled on an amendment to his will whereby the Society became the principal beneficiary of his collection of road travel books and maps, and in association, made over to the Society the sum of?200 to provide income for the maintenance of the collection, for the production of a catalogue and for the more general encouragement of the study of carto-bibliography (RGS Archives, 1929a, 1927c). Fordham's original intention regarding his collection was that part should go to the Bodleian, to be associated with the Gough deposits, and part to the Bibliographical Society (RGS Archives, 1924d). He felt that he owed the University of Oxford a considerable debt of gratitude for publishing his Studies in Carto-bibliography in 1914 (RGS Archives, 1920), while the Bibliographical Society had long provided a ready outlet for his lecturing and writing. Against this background, Fordham's decision to alter his will in favour of the Society was clearly a munificent one. It reflected the measure of his interest in its affairs; it reflected, too, his faith in the Society as a further champion of the study of carto-bibliography. The collection itself Although the Fordham Collection is by no means without counterparts, both in Britain and abroad,* it is remarkable for two main reasons: firstly, in its geographical and temporal scope, and secondly, in its representation of single works through successive editions and reprints. The geographical breakdown of the collection is indicated in Table I: * Further British examples are the Box Collection at Winchester College and the Whitaker Collection at the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds. Among the major national libraries, only the British Museum (British Library) has holdings approaching those of the Fordham Collection.

8 222 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION TABLE I Geographical breakdown Great Britain 542 France 153 Italy 18 Spain and Portugal 12 Germany 5 Holland and Belgium 4 Switzerland 4 Europe 42 Outside Europe, including the World 15 As might be expected for a British-assembled collection, approximately two-thirds of the contents relate to Great Britain. Of the remainder, however, there are works from most countries of the European mainland, including Europe as a whole, and also a scattering of material from the rest of the world. France is the most strongly represented country outside Great Britain, a reflection of Fordham's particular interest in French carto-bibliography and of his many visits to the country in the course of his later life. Table II illustrates how the items of the collection are distributed over time and it is here, perhaps above all, that one appreciates the worth of Fordham's achievement. TABLE II Distribution over time Undated 50 Naturally, there is a heavy concentration in the hundred years from 1750 to 1850, the hey-day of road transport based on the technology of the horse. But, in relative terms, representation is almost equally strong for the early years of road travel. There are some 80 items dated before 1750, including Estienne's La Guide des Chemins de France of 1553, one of the earliest French road-books; Bernard's La Guide des Chemins D'Angleterre of 1579, an early French road-book covering English roads; and Mayerne-Turquet's Sommaire Description de la France, Allemagne, Italie et Espagne avec la Guide des Chemins of 1591, yet another early French road-book but more extensive in its geographical coverage than those of Estienne and Bernard. Among the more noteworthy English items published before 1750 are Grafton's Abridgement of the Chronicles of England of 1572, incorporating road tables; an early issue of A Direction for the English Traveller by Jenner (1643); The English Traveller's Companion by Bassett (1676); and the 1681 issue of the British Merlin by Riders, a traveller's almanac. Systematic examination of the types of work contained in the collection reveals three main concentrations: road-books; maps and atlases; and tourist guides and itineraries. Road-books form by far the most prominent grouping, followed by

9 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION 223 maps and atlases. Table III illustrates the breakdown more fully for Great Britain and France. TABLE III Types of work GB France Road-books Maps and atlases Tourist guides and itineraries It is in the 271 British and French road-books that the wealth of the Fordham Collection is most readily apparent for it is here that one finds so many single works traced through successive editions and reprints. For Britain, there are 21 copies of the well-known Cary's New Itinerary, representing all the 11 editions published between 1798 and 1828 as well as different states of particular editions. The rival publication, Paterson's Roads, is similarly covered, with copies of all 18 editions from 1771 to 1832 and a further 10 variants. But no less represented are the supportive publications of John Cary and Daniel Paterson, including Cary's Turnpike Roads (19 examples from 1790 to 1828), Paterson's Travelling Dictionary (7 examples from 1772 to 1779) and Paterson's British Itinerary (a full set of the four two-volume editions of 1785 to 1807). The picture for France is equally impressive. To complement the sixteenth century guides of Estienne and Mayerne-Turquet, the collection contains some remarkable runs of the official French road-books*. Jaillot's Liste Generale des Postes de France is represented in no less than 32 different annual editions from 1711 to 1778; while of Jaillot's various successors, there are some 28 different examples, covering the years 1785 to 1849 and including the series under the title Etat General des Postes du Royaume de France, later simply Le Livre de Poste. As is clear from Table III, the majority of the maps and atlases in the Fordham Collection relate to Great Britain. The reason why France is so poorly represented is that Fordham gave most of his rarer French holdings to the British Museum. The British maps in the collection show a heavy concentration on the works of Cary. In fact, 83 of the 153 British items are Cary publications. There are six different editions of the New and Correct English Atlas, from 1787 to 1831; 24 examples of the Map of England and Wales with part of Scotland, a reduction (15 miles: 1 inch) of Cary's main survey of 1794; and 14 separate editions of the variously titled plans of London and its environs. It was the possession of so large a body of Cary publications, of course, which helped to make Fordham's monograph on Cary of such lasting worth. The most heterogeneous section of the collection is undoubtedly that made up by the tourist guides and itineraries. In the case of France as well as Britain, there are guides and itineraries covering areas the size of Scotland on the one hand and individual roads and towns on the other. Lakeland, the various tourist regions of Wales, spa and resort towns such as Tunbridge Wells, Cheltenham and Brighton all find a place; as in turn do the five main regions of France, the city of Paris and major thoroughfares such as the road from Paris to Calais. * In France, the business of road travel was much more formalised than was the case in Britain. Under a long series of government decrees dating back as far as the fifteenth century, the supply of post-horses, indeed the whole posting organisation, was carefully regulated and controlled.

10 224 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION It is beyond the scope of the present paper to offer a full description of the Fordham Collection's contents. Suffice it to say that, in addition to road-books, maps and atlases, and tourist guides and itineraries, the collection contains some 60 topographical works, around 30 travel gazetteers and travel almanacs, various items on canals and railways, and a number of straight historical publications. The peripheral nature of the subject matter of some of these additional works should not be seen as detracting from their importance, for it is here that one finds a number of the collection's most interesting specimens. The value of the collection to the geographer The geographical value of Fordham's map collection is self-evident and requires little elaboration here. As Henshall has remarked, moreover, the Fordham map holdings and the many carto-bibliographical publications stemming from them are now firmly recognised in modern carto-bibliography (Henshall, 1969). Historical geographers such as Andrews, Harley, Laxton and Ravenhill have more than continued the tradition set by Fordham (e.g. Andrews, 1967; Harley, 1965; Laxton, 1976; Ravenhill, 1978), as have co-workers in related fields. This is not to say that all the possible lines of investigation have been exhausted. The point is rather that there is a continuing flow of research. The same cannot be said for the extensive road-book holdings found in the collection and it is with these that the present discussion is mainly concerned. Indeed, the justification for laying emphasis on the road-book literature is especially strong at the present time on account of the growing importance now being attached to the role of roads and road transport in England before and during the Industrial Revolution (Albert, 1972; Chartres, 1977ab; Freeman, 1975, 1977,1979; Pawson, 1977; Turnbull, 1977). Two main lines of research may be identified in the study of road-books. Firstly, there is the examination of the publications per se, including their increasing incidence over time, the numbers of new editions and impressions, and their changing content. Secondly, there is the examination of the information the publications actually contain, in other words using the literature for reconstructing past geographies, for studying geographical change through time, following conventional idioms of historical geography. For reasons of space and of clarity, this paper will confine its examination under these headings to British road-books. The procedures outlined might be applied almost equally well to the road-books of France, however. The most striking feature of British road-book literature is the vigour it reflects as a publishing market, especially after For not only were there the mainstream publications of John Cary and Daniel Paterson, in their many editions and impressions, but there were also numerous other contenders in what was clearly a growing and profitable field. In the sixty years between 1771 and 1832, Cary and Paterson (including their successors as publishers) produced 53 editions of their five national road-books, and the figure rises very much higher if the different states of individual editions are also taken into account. Moreover, what evidence is available on print-runs indicates that some editions were sold in thousands rather than in hundreds. The eleventh edition (1796) of Paterson's Roads, for example, is reputed to have run to copies, of which some 6000 had been sold by 1798, while the twelfth edition (1799) of the same work is recorded as having sold 3700 copies in less than a year (Paterson, 1803). Of Cary and Paterson's various contenders, two deserve particular mention: Owen's New Book of Roads, a companion volume to Owen's Book of Fairs, ran through at least

11 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION separate editions between the mid-1770s and 1840; while Ogilby and Morgan's Book of Roads, first produced in 1676, passed through 13 new editions between 1750 and As if sheer numbers of new editions were not sufficient indication of the strength and volume of contemporary road travel, yet more can be learnt from close scrutiny of the publications themselves. Most remarkable is the way works such as Paterson's Roads and Cary's New Itinerary grew in size and detail through successive editions. From a mere 150 pages in its first edition form of 1771, Paterson's Roads, for instance, had grown to over 900 pages by And even the more finely printed versions by Mogg ( ) reached almost similar sizes. The core of virtually all of the road-books produced in the period consisted of a series of detailed itineraries for the country's direct roads and principal cross roads, complete with full distance measurements. Maps, notably in the form of road-strips, were sometimes incorporated, but as a rule these belonged to the earlier generations of road-books, beginning with John Ogilby's famous Britannia of What the later road-books lacked in cartographic illustration was perhaps compensated by the varying kinds of additional information which they included over the years. Owen's New Book of Roads increasingly had the companion Book of Fairs bound with it, while from 1810, Cary's New Itinerary included detailed stage-coach lists, initially just for services to and from London, but later for services in the provinces as well. Comparing these variations between the major road-books more closely, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that rather than being direct competitors, each was aimed at different sectors of the market. Owen's road-book, with its companion list of fairs and markets, its uncomplicated format and its slim size, was clearly geared more to farmers and agriculturalists. In contrast, the more detailed and more comprehensive treatments of Cary and Paterson were clearly inclined to rather different sectors: Cary's New Itinerary, with its London and provincial stage-coach lists, perhaps more towards the needs of 'commercial men'; Paterson's Roads, without such public transport timetables, possibly more to the leisured classes. In some respects, then, one can see encapsulated in the volume and nature of British road-book literature a vivid diorama of contemporary economy and society, one which would repay further investigation. Such lines of enquiry apart, the greatest value of Fordham's road-book collection lies, of course, on the pages of the books he so painstakingly sought to trace through successive editions and impressions. The scope for research is enormous and all that can be attempted here is to indicate the most obvious channels of investigation and to offer some supporting examples. At the broadest level, one of the most profitable research areas must surely be examination of the growth in road coverage, as this reflects the geography of contemporary economic development. The particular merit of British road-books in this context is that rarely were they confined just to turnpike roads. Hence it may be possible to gain a rather fuller picture of contemporary economic change than that so far afforded by the major turnpike studies (Albert, 1972; Pawson, 1977). Another potentially fruitful line of research is the changing significance of fairs and markets as mechanisms of contemporary trade. The detailed listings of these events incorporated as companions to Owen's series of road-books provide the most obvious source for studies of this kind, but less elaborate lists can also be found. In all these investigations, there are naturally problems of reliability and compatibility. To the student trained in the interpretation of historical sources, however, these are by no means insurmountable.

12 226 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION Perhaps the most readily forthcoming area of research on the literature of British road-books is in the information that some contain on public transport facilities. Pride of place here must go to Cary's New Itinerary which from 1810, as indicated already, incorporated a steadily more comprehensive catalogue of stage-coach services. The evolution of the English stage-coach system occupied a space of almost two hundred years, from about the time of the 'Commonwealth' until the early years of Victoria. Its most developed form was attained in the twenty years following Waterloo, which means that the Cary coach lists, somewhat uniquely amongst the various alternative sources (Freeman, 1975), present a uniform sequence for the study of the system in its zenith years. Figure 2 illustrates the scope and intensity of London's stage-coach connections as t SY 12 3 times per week daily 2-5 times daily M 0 n 40 Miles -J Fig. 2. London's stage-coach connections in 1821

13 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION 227 indicated in Cary's New Itinerary for the year By this time, the capital offered the potential traveller some 4500 separate departures each week, with centres such as Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Chatham, Dover, Holyhead and Oxford benefiting from in excess of 10 services daily. Assuming an average loading of 10 per coach (the average capacity of stage-coaches in use at the time was approximately 13), this represents some outward passenger movements a week and serves to underline the far more than token significance of the stage-coach in passenger transport at the time. Moreover, if the complex network of 'short-stage' or suburban services around London is also taken into account (these were the subject of a separate listing in the New Itinerary), and if one superimposes, in turn, the various provincial networks radiating from centres such as Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, it is hard to fail to appreciate the enormous complexity of the country's stage-coach system by the 1820s. It carried with it a vast underpinning structure of inns, coach offices and stabling houses, provided thousands with employment and offered farmers a large market for oats and hay. In step with the remarkable growth in the range and scale of coach services, there were parallel improvements in coach schedules. Whereas in the mid-eighteenth century it was rarely possible to cover more than 40 or 50 miles in a day's travelling, by 1820 the same distance could be covered in six or seven hours. The London coach lists incorporated in Cary's New Itinerary, unlike those in most contemporary directories, contain a wealth of information on coach timings from which it is possible to construct a series of detailed national pictures. Figure 3 presents the position in the year 1821, indicating the successive six-hourly isochrones from London, based on the mean schedules for each available route. The easier terrain and perhaps better maintained roads of East Anglia and the Fen country are readily apparent in the far more favourable schedules on the London-Cambridge and London-Norwich runs as compared, for instance, with those to Salisbury and the Hampshire towns. Of similar note is the way towns located on major thoroughfares gained in timings over neighbours through the availability of a superior infrastructural base, Peterborough on the Great North Road providing the most obvious case in point. But most striking in the contemporary context is that the major manufacturing centres of Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds were by 1821 almost within 24 hours travelling time of London, a remarkable advance over 50 years earlier when the journeys were measured in days rather than hours. The analyses of coaching activity presented above do little justice to the material extracted from the New Itinerary and presented in Figures 2 and 3. There is a great deal more to be learnt, for example, from the spatial configuration of the country's stage-coach system (Fig. 2), both in its strictly geographical aspects (e.g. accordance with distance-decay principles) and as a reflector of socio-economic structure. What must be remembered here is that stage-coaches in England had a function beyond that of simply carrying of passengers and mail: they were involved to a surprising extent in the distribution of light, high-value manufactured goods, varying from precision ironmongery to fine cloths. Equally prominent was their traffic in samples: samples of raw commodities such as cotton, wool and different kinds of grain; and also samples of semi-manufactured goods, varying from bar iron to yarns and threads. The surviving correspondence of contemporary firms such as Peter Stubs, Warrington handtool manufacturers (M.C.L.A.), M'Connell and Kennedy, the famous Manchester cotton spinners (J.R.L.) and Joseph Jackson, Wakefield

14 228 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION woolstaplers (W.D.A.) abound with references to these additional traffics. The importance of the stage-coach in product distribution and in the buying and selling process thus went considerably beyond the simple communication of information on prices and the transmission of orders and bills of payment Miles Fig. 3. Stage-coach schedules from London, 1821 In summary, one has in the Fordham Collection a rich source for historical geography, for the historical geography of transport especially. Although the popularity of source-orientated studies within the subject, the 'hunt-the-source syndrome' (Harley, 1973), has diminished in recent years, the merit of the Fordham Bequest lies in its impressive variety of content and in the scope it affords, so rare nowadays, for detailed comparison and cross-reference in the process of investigation. Fordham's own research work has set future users of the

15 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION 229 collection a high standard of scholarship. His express wishes for the collection, however, were much less demanding: he simply hoped that it would serve to encourage the study of carto-bibliography and related themes (RGS Archives, 1927c, 1929b). If the present paper helps in the fulfilment of this aim, the Fordham legacy will have been justified. Acknowledgements The authors are indebted to the staffs of the Library and the Map Room of the RGS for their unfailing attention in the preparation of this paper. M. J. F. also wishes to thank the Society's archivist, Mrs Christine Kelly, for her assistance with the Fordham Correspondence; and Jean Gottmann, Professor of Geography at Oxford, for encouraging the project in the first place. Access to the Fordham Collection; catalogue of the collection Readers wishing to examine the Fordham Collection, or particular items it contains, are requested to write in the first instance to the Librarian. A catalogue of the collection, compiled by M. J. Freeman and J. Longbotham, is available on application to the Librarian. References Albert, W The Turnpike Road System in England, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Andrews, J. H The French School of Dublin land surveyors. Irish Geogr. 5: Chartres, J. A Road carrying in England in the seventeenth century: myth and reality. Econ. Hist. Rev. 2nd ser. 30: Chartres, J. A Internal Trade in England, Macmillan Press. Fordham, H. G Note sur la liaison entre la Cartobibliographie et l'histoire. Bulletin de la Socite Rovale Belge Geographie 47: Freeman, M. J The stage-coach system of South Hampshire, J. Hist. Geogr. 1: Freeman, M. J The carrier system of South Hampshire, J. Transport Hist. New ser. 4: Freeman, M. J Turnpikes and their traffic: the example of southern Hampshire. Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr., New ser. 4: Harley, J. B The re-mapping of England, Imago Mundi 19: Harley, J. B Change in historical geography: a qualitative impression of quantitative methods. Area 5: Henshall, J. A Sir H. George Fordham, Carto-bibliographer. Map Collectors' Series 51. J.R.L.-John Rylands Library: Records of M'Connell and Kennedy-Letter-books (outgoing correspondence), Letters (incoming correspondence), Laxton, P The geodetic and topographical evaluation of English County Maps, CartographicJ. 13: M.C.L.A.-Manchester Central Library Archives: Records of Peter Stubs Ltd.-L24/1 Orders and general correspondence, Paterson, D A New and Accurate Description of all the Direct and Principal Cross Roads in England and Wales, & part of the Roads of Scotland. 13th edition. F. Newbery. Advertisement. Pawson, E. J Transport and Economy: The Turnpike Roads of Eighteenth Centumr Britain. Academic Press. Ravenhill, W John Adams, his map of England, its projection, and his Index Villans of GeogrlJ. 144: RGS Archives, 1910 Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Scott Keltie, 14 February; Scott Keltie to HGF, 18 February. RGS Archives, 1916 Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Heawood, 17 July. RGS Archives, 1920 Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Heawood, 1 January. RGS Archives, 1923 Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Heawood 3 March. RGS Archives, 1924a Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Heawood 3 February; Hinks to HGF 5 February. RGS Archives, 1924b Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Hinks, 26 May.

16 230 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION RGS Archives, 1924c Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Hinks, 20 August. RGS Archives, 1924d Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Hinks, 20 August; HGF to Hinks, 23 November. RGS Archives, 1926a Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Hinks, 31 July. RGS Archives, 1926b Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Hinks, 6 September. RGS Archives, 1927a Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Heawood, 10 April. RGS Archives, 1927b Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Heawood, 26 January. RGS Archives, 1927c Deed of gift of?200 to establish the Fordham Fund, 17 December. RGS Archives, 1928 Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Heawood, 23 April. RGS Archives, 1929a Fordham Correspondence. W. H. Fordham to Hinks, 28 February. RGS Archives, 1929b Fordham Correspondence. HGF to Hinks, 5 January. Turnbull, G. L Provincial road carrying in England in the Eighteenth Century. J. Transport Hist. New ser. 4: W.D.A.-Wakefield District Archives (Goodchild Loan Ms.): Records of Joseph Jackson-Incoming correspondence, APPENDIX List of Fordham's published works on Carto-bibliography and related fields Note. For details of Fordham's privately printed works readers should consult Henshall (1969). Details of the various private reprintings of Fordham's published works will also be found contained there Hertfordshire Maps: a Descriptive Catalogue of the Maps of the County, Part I, Trans. Herts. Nat. Hist. Soc. & Field Club 11: Note on a supposed Romano-British Settlement at Odsey. Proc. Cambs. Antiquarian Soc. 10: Hertfordshire Maps: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Maps of the County, Part II, Trans. Herts. Nat. Hist. Soc. & Field Club 11: Cambridgeshire Maps. An annotated List of the pre-survey Maps of the County of Cambridge, , with the Maps of the Great Level of the Fens, Part I. Proc. Cambs. Antiquarian Soc. 11: Hertfordshire Maps: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Maps of the County, Part II, (concluded), Part III, (to be continued). Trans. Herts. Nat. Hist. Soc. & Field Club 12: Notes sur la Cartographie des provinces anglaises et franqaises des XVIe et XVIIe siecles. Annales du XXe Congres de la Federation Archeologiqu et Historique de Belgique I: Hertfordshire Maps: a Descriptive Catalogue of the Maps of the County, Part III, (concluded). Trans. Herts. Nat. Hist. Soc. & Field Club 13: Cambridgeshire Maps. An annotated List of the pre-survey Maps of the County of Cambridge, , with the Maps of the Great Level of the Fens, Part II. Proc. Cambs. Antiquarian Soc. 11: Cambridgeshire Maps. II. Maps of the Nineteenth Century, with the Maps of the Great Level of the Fens, Proc. Cambs. Antiquarian Soc. 12: The Cartography of the Provinces of France, Proc. Cambs. Antiquarian Soc. 13: Liste Alphabetique des Plans et Vues de Villes, Citadelles et Forteresses qui se trouvent dans le grand atlas de Mortier, edition d'amsterdam de Comite des Travaux historiques et scientifiques, Bulletin de geographie historiquet descriptive. 1-2: Descriptive Catalogues of Maps. Trans. Bibliographical Soc. 11: La Cartographie des Provinces de France, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Studies in Carto-Bibliography, British and French, and in the Bibliography of Itineraries and Road-Books. Oxford: Clarendon Press Hertfordshire Maps: a Descriptive Catalogue of the Maps of the County, Supplement. Trans. Herts. Nat. Hist. Soc. & Field Club. 15: Roads and Travel before Railways in Hertfordshire and Elsewhere. Trans. Herts. Nat. Hist. Soc. & Field Club. 16: Road-books and Itineraries bibliographically considered. Trans. Bibliographical Soc. 13: Catalogue des Guides-Routiers et des Itin6raires Francais, Comite des Travaux historiques et scientifiques, Bulletin de la Section de Geographie: Note on Series of Early French Atlases, , presented to the British Museum, Trans. Bibliographical Soc. New ser. 1:

17 THE FORDHAM COLLECTION: AN INTRODUCTION The Earliest French Itineraries, 1552 and 1591, Charles Estienne and Theodore de Mayerne-Turquet. Trans. Bibliographical Soc., New ser. 1: Maps: Their History, Characteristics and Uses. A Hand-Book for Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Les Guides-Routiers Franfais. Notes et Illustrations Supplementaires. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Une Piraterie Litteraire au dix-huitieme siecle. Les Contrefafons de la Liste General des Postes de France des Jaillot, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press The Listes Generales des Postes de France, , and the Jaillots, Geographes ordinaires du Roi. Trans. Bibliographical Soc., New Ser. 3: The Road-Books and Itineraries of Ireland, 1647 to A Catalogue. Dublin: Bibliographical Society of Ireland An Address on the Evolution of the Maps of the British Isles. Manchester: Manchester University Press Note sur la liaison entre la Cartobibliographie et l'histoire. Bulletin de la Societe Royale Beige Geographie 47: Notes on the Hundred and Manor, or Grange, of Odsey. East Herts. Arch. Soc. Trans. 6: The Road-Books and Itineraries of Great Britain, 1570 to A Catalogue. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press The Beginnings of Railway Travel. The History Teachers' Miscellany 2: The Work of John Cary and his successors. GeogrlJ. 63: Barley. A Thoroughfare Town. EastHerts. Arch. Soc. Trans. 7: Paterson's Roads. Daniel Paterson, his Maps and Itineraries, Trans. Bibliographical Soc., New ser. 5: John Cary, Engraver, Map, Chart and Print-Seller and Globe-Maker, 1754 to Cambridge: Cambridge University Press John Ogilby ( ). His Britannia, and the British Itineraries of the Eighteenth Century. Trans. Bibliographical Soc., New ser. 6: Saxton's General Map of England and Wales. GeogrlJ. 67: La Cartographie des Routes de France au XVIIIe siecle. Comite des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques, Bulletin de la Section de Geographie: Une Carte-Routiere de France du XVIIP siecle. La Geographie 46: Richard Gough. Bodleian Quarterly Record 5: Les Guides-Routiers Franfais. Notes et Illustrations Supplementaires. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press A Note on the 'Quartermaster's Map', GeogrlJ. 70: The Roads of England and Wales and the Turnpike System. TheHistory Teachers'Miscellany The Road-Books of Wales, with a Catalogue, Archaeologia Cambrensis 82: The Earliest Tables of the Highways of England and Wales, Trans. Bibliographical Soc. New ser. 8: Some surveys and Maps of the Elizabethan period remaining in Manuscript: Saxton, Symonson and Norden. GeogrlJ. 71: Hand-List of Catalogues and Works of Reference relating to Cartobibliography and Kindred Subjects for Great Britain and Ireland, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Exposition d'exemplaires choisis de Cartes Geographiques. (International Geographical Congress, Cambridge, July 1028). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Rimes d'un Congressiste, H.G.F. (International Geographical Congress, Cambridge, July 1928). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Christopher Saxton of Dunningley. His Life and Work. Thoresby Society's Miscellanea 28: Les Routes de France. Paris: Honore Champion Some Notable Surveyors and Map-Makers of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and their Work. A Study in the History of Cartography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.