Buckinghamshire Old County Map by John Speed

At the top corner are town plans of Buckingham and, curiously, Reading. Speed has added a note, explaining that as there was not room for the Reading plan on his map of Berkshire, as it is "one of the most ancient and chiefest" towns in the county, he has added it to the Bucks one. On the bottom corners of the map are engraved arches, containing the coats of arms of the "honourable families" of the area and the Royal Arms. The boundaries of the hundreds, large estates, towns, some villages, hills and rivers and shown. The River Thames forms the southern boundary of the county.

John Speed, a tailor's son from Cheshire is, perhaps, the most famous of British cartographers and one of the earliest. Whilst in his 50's, aided by his patron, Sir Fulke Greville, he produced "The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain", a book of county maps to accompany a history of Great Britain.

All of the John Speed maps in the mapseeker collection have been painstakingly reproduced working directly from antique originals and hand painted to bring out the finest colour detail before scanning. Available in all product sizes they look most handsome framed and displayed