The blasted heath must be around here somewhere

"Give me the map there. Know we have divided
In three our kingdom: and 'tis our fast intent
To shake all cares and business from our age..."

                                                          King Lear         (I, i)

Shakespeare's King Lear doesn't get high marks for thinking things through. He is old and tired of the cares of his kingdom, so he seeks to retain his lofty status while sloughing off those cares on younger hearts. Fat chance: there's at least one big problem. Two of his three daughters are heartless.

Pictured above, from the collection of Agecroft Hall, is an original 1577 copperplate engraved map of Lancashire (where Agecroft once stood) made by Christopher Saxton, a young surveyor from Yorkshire. Saxton was commissioned in 1574 to make maps of all the counties in England. At the time, William Shakespeare was a boy of ten.

By 1579, the industrious Saxton had completed an atlas containing 34 county maps, along with a map of England in its entirety. Despite Saxton's considerable reputation as a surveyor and mapmaker, there is a frustrating dearth of information about exactly how he went about his task in each shire. He did reportedly have an open letter from Queen Elizabeth I that instructed local authorities in no uncertain terms to assist and guide Saxton "to any towre, castle, or hill to view that countrey." Clearly, the mapmaker's work was regarded as a monumental undertaking, and carelessness was not an option.

When it came to mapping newly-discovered regions of the world, English efforts generally lagged behind those of the Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese. But their cartographic efforts in their own country were superlative. Doubtless Elizabeth shared with William the Conqueror the awareness that accurate information leads to accurate knowledge, and that leads to accurately assessed taxation of the realm. Money, money, money.

Without question, there was nationalistic pride involved in the effort as well: since the English realm stood at the top of the pyramid of nations  (the Elizabethan English wouldn't have hesitated to tell you so), it only stood to reason that its cities, towns and shires be set in their proper places like gems in a crown. But as Shakespeare's Lear was to discover, an earthly crown can be misleading on any map of the human heart.

Saxton's maps of the various shires varied in size and scale. As if the wildly variable spelling of words was not enough, the English also varied their measurement of a mile. Archival material indicates that whenever possible, Saxton based his measurements on the old English mile of 2240 yards. All roads were omitted from Saxton's maps for some reason peculiar to the time. Rivers were carefully delineated. Villages were represented by a single church tower, and larger towns were indicated on the map by two or more towers.

Locations of important manors are designated, including the original site of Agecroft Hall, shown on the map as "Edgecroft" and situated slightly northwest of Manchester, an area overwhelmed these days by that city's subsequent sprawl. The map was hand colored shortly after it was printed.