However, he apparently didn’t have room for the village in his sketch-map of Somerset. On John Leland’s 16th-century shire survey, he likely made note of Nunney Castle, built in the late 1300s by Sir John Delamere. Rob and Betty Walker lived in Nunney Court, just southeast of Frome. As Professor Taylor noted, “The frequent mis-spelling of names is a blemish, but one only to be expected from foreign workers.” As cited in Part 1, Speed’s Atlas was the product of publishers and cartographers in Amsterdam. Less recognizable is the map’s Bayſte, Bath, and Fronme, Frome. Note that there have been differences of borders among British shires, some historical, some administrative, some still being contested, as evidenced by CountyWatch, the Wikipedia entry of which is noted as having “multiple issues.”īriſtoll is one evident example in the 1627 map so is Glaſſenbury, today’s Glastonbury, in central Somerset. We’re attracted by the traditional long s, ſ, which looks like an f with only half its crossbar. Below, a modern Somerset’s Google Maps equivalent. Above, map from An Atlas of Tudor England and Wales, 1627.

Bath, a few miles away, was a city of healing.” Both are cited in Somersetshire, both in Speed’s Atlas and Taylor’s commentary. Bristol, adopted home of John Cabot, and famous for its unique underground sewers removing ‘all noysome filth and uncleanness,’ was a city of merchants.

Professor Taylor notes, “Two famous cities attracted strangers. An Atlas of Tudor England and Wales: Forty Plates from John Speed’s Pocket Atlas of 1627, by E.G.R.

Here in Part 2, we visit Somersetshire and see where it leads us. WHAT FUN EXPLORING the British Isles with maps dating from 1627! Well, yes, 20th-century Tudor authority Professor Eva G.R.

TOURING TUDOR ENGLAND-WITH PROFESSOR EVA TAYLOR AND GOOGLE MAPS PART 2

Glastonbury tor google map