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This finely engraved map of Middlesex by Robert Morden dates from the early 18th century and was originally issued in his Camden’s Britannia (1695 edition and later).
Rendered with characteristic clarity and ornamentation, the map shows the county as it was divided into its ancient “hundreds,” delineated by hand-colored boundary lines and including settlements such as Enfield, Harrow, Uxbridge, and Westminster. The map extends from the borders of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire in the north and west to the Thames and the edge of Kent and Surrey in the southeast, where the city of London is prominently engraved in red with its street layout faintly visible.
Morden includes rivers, roads, hills, and forests, as well as market towns and major estates, offering a detailed and attractive representation of the county’s topography and civic organization. London appears at the bottom right.
Robert Morden (d. 1703) was a British map and globe maker. Little is known about his early life, although he was most likely apprenticed to Joseph Moxon. By 1671, Morden was working from the sign of the Atlas on Cornhill, the same address out of which Moxon had previously worked. Most famous for his English county maps, his geography texts, and his wall maps, Morden entered into many partnerships during his career, usually to finance larger publishing projects.
