Mr. Gough's map

Richard Gough was born in London in 1735, his father was a director of the East India Company, his mother the daughter of a successful London brewer. The family was wealthy as a result, and while at Cambridge Gough began collecting. He ignored the trend for fine art and classical artefacts, deciding instead to concentrate on the less fashionable, and less expensive, material relating to Britain, and when Gough died in 1790 this collection came to the Bodleian. Over 10,000 topographic prints, plans, maps, tapestries and other written ephemera make the collection of Richard Gough one of the largest made in, and of, this country; and includes the largest Tudor map tapestries in existence, crucial plans and drawings from important antiquarians such as William Stukeley and John Aubery and, the subject of this story, the earliest surviving single sheet map of the country, the Gough Map.

The map dates to between 1390 and 1410. It's one of the treasures of the library, and is the most important item to come to the Bodleian in the Gough bequest. Bought in 1774 for half a crown the map is drawn on the hide of a sheep and a lamb (the join can be seen half-way through Scotland) and measures 115 x 56 cm. The map is orientated with east at the top (so Scotland is at the left and Wales at the bottom), which would have made a long piece of material easy to work on. The map names over 600 locations and features over 200 rivers. This extract shows Hadrian's Wall, and must have been a favourite part of the map for someone with a love of ancient history. Gough, who had written about early British cartography, considered it the best of all the early British maps.

The importance of York and London is highlighted with the use of gold leaf. Scotland is poorly mapped, an indication that at the time Scotland was a foreign country, and one with which England was often at war. While Scotland is poorly depicted Calais, an English settlement following a successful siege by Edward III in 1346, is shown in great detail on the edge of the map, across the channel from Kent.

The importance of the Gough Map is due to it's place in the cartographic development of maps of Britain. Previous maps, such as the example shown here of a C18th copy of Matthew Paris's map of Britain from c.1250, share some similarities with the Gough, the coastline of Wales, for example. But compare the amount of information in the two maps. Being larger the Gough was able to accommodate so much more but it is the accuracy of the information given which is the main improvement on what had come before.

Interestingly Matthew Paris shows both Hadrian's and the Antonine Walls, though this may have to do with the map being a copy of an earlier version made by the antiquarian William Stukeley. This map is also from the Gough collection.

One major difference between the Gough and earlier maps is a clear design in the map to show connections between locations, with some form of measured distance between in old French miles.

Recent research on the map has revealed more of its complex history. 3D photography shows previously unknown pinholes around key features, which means it is likely that an earlier, equally accurate, map was laid on top and then its outline transferred onto the parchment below.

Studies have been made on the handwriting, which suggests that different hands have played a part in drawing the map. This difference can be seen clearly in these two extracts of places in Scotland and England. Studies suggest that areas to the north of Hadrain's Wall were done and then not revised while areas to the south of the wall have been changed and added to, evident in both the difference in writing but also depiction of places.

The Gough Map is an important document from a crucial time in the history of Britain. War with France had led to English settlements in France and the start of a history that goes through Crecy to Agincourt while closer to home the castles and settlements in a straight line along the Welsh border hark back to campaigns by Edward I at the start of the 1300s and are a further hint that the Gough is based on an earlier map.

There is an zoomable image of the map here  Bodleian Library MS. Gough Gen. Top. 16   and a short audio clip about the map can be viewed here

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