MOULE Thomas

Maps by Thomas Moule (1784-1851) are probably, with those by Speed, the best known of all series of English county maps. Issued from 1830, the maps combine a clarity of cartographic style with immense detail, by way of vignette views, scenes and portraits relating to the county shown, often set within a gothic architectural or floral surround into which armorial devices and so on are worked. As editions of the maps were published, first in �The English Counties Delineated� and later in �Barclay�s English Dictionary�, the development of the network of railways throughout England can be observed.

Moule, like many other map-makers and map-sellers before him, was a man of many talents. As an author his output included books and papers on topography, history, genealogy, heraldry and architecture; the maps he designed show elements of these studies. The maps and plans produced for Moule�s �English Counties Delineated�, originally issued as a part-work, include maps of each English county, the towns of London, Bath, Boston, Portsmouth and Plymouth, and the Isles of Wight, Man and Thanet. Frequently entitled �the last series of decorative county maps�, they are good informative maps, as popular now as they were in the early years of Queen Victoria�s reign