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A highly detailed and decorative map of north-eastern Wales, compiled from original survey by Christopher and John Greenwood as part of their celebrated topographic survey of England and Wales. This sheet covers the counties of Flintshire, Denbighshire, and Montgomeryshire, forming the so-called "North East Circuit" of the Principality. It was published shortly after the Reform Act of 1832 and reflects both the legacy of late-Enlightenment-era land measurement and the new political geography of modern parliamentary representation.
The map is engraved at a scale of one inch to the mile and densely noted with towns, villages, parish boundaries, roads, canals, early railways, parks, woods, commons, mills, castles, chapels, and various topographic features. Market towns are picked out in uppercase, with subsidiary parishes and villages named in full. Turnpike roads and toll bars are shown with particular clarity, a hallmark of the Greenwoods’ emphasis on infrastructure. The upland terrain of the Berwyn range and Cambrian foothills is rendered in bold hachure. Major watercourses, including the River Dee and Severn headwaters, are delineated with precision.
The title cartouche is finely engraved in an ornate script. At left is a vignette of St. Asaph’s Cathedral by J.Jones. A large compass rose occupies the upper left quadrant, and a detailed key at lower right explains the symbology used for dozens of features. The acreage of each county is also given: Flintshire (270 sq. mi.), Denbighshire (606 sq. mi.), and Montgomeryshire (768 sq. mi.).
At lower left is a list of the newly designated parliamentary election and polling places for each county, introduced under the 1832 Reform Act. These include Flint, Denbigh, and Montgomery as county centers, with satellite polling towns such as Rhuddlan, Llanrwst, Llangollen, and Machynlleth.
Issued in the final years of the Greenwood brothers’ topographic enterprise, this map is a fine example of the synthesis of Enlightenment land survey with early Victorian administrative reform. Scarce in this form and especially so with original wash color and wide margins.
