okay what we don't want this to be is the Big Bang Theory Sheldon Cooper doing
fun with flags because this is professional
we're better than that but I made a flag like you like okay that's pretty cool
okay so we've done that you don't really want flags how about fun with maps oh
this could be a whole series okay anyway on with today's video so if you
pick up any modern Atlas and obviously we don't all use atlases these Days we
we tend to use sat-nav but same principle everything on it is
precise it gets you from A to B it does exactly what it says on the tin it's
perfect it's to scale but it wasn't always quite like that was it? No so
going back to a time before modern transportation trains planes and
automobiles going back before modern transportation Maps often served a
different purpose all together this is the story of a 70 year old map maker who
in the latter part of his life managed to map 26,000 miles of roads and not
entirely for the purposes that you would think.
before the 1500s there are good few maps about of the British Isles
but they all had one thing in common they were barely recognizable varying
shapes and sizes you would do well to even guess that they were supposed to
represent the British Isles over the centuries map makers didn't always
concentrate on the roads themselves so they would map a lot of features they
would map hills wooded areas and the towns themselves and often rivers but
there would very rarely concentrate on the routes themselves often they were
the old pilgrimage routes and things like that but nothing that would give
you a sense of scale or distance from the next town there was nothing to guide
you between the two towns other than these prominent features in steps John
Ogilby be a rather unique character born in Scotland in 1600 he lived a
rather charmed life a dancer in his very early years he then went on to set up
Ireland's first theatre the Werber Street Theatre after the Irish rebellion
he returned to England where he learned Latin and Greek
he offered translation services earning him some good sums of money after which
he soon married and then set up his publishing business after period of time
he earned the favour of Charles the second helping him with arrangements for the
coronation in 1660 it was until a majority's work was destroyed the Great
Fire of London he turned to surveying he was appointed the Kings cosmography
and geographical printer was quite a mouthful pretty sure there here is
connections that he developed over the years will play a significant part in
this story at the age of 70 Ogiobys most notable work began he was given a
Royal Commission to survey the whole of England of Wales perhaps a little odd
that a person holding a position is master of revels in Ireland and a
publisher would be given such an undertaking Ogilby undertook the task
in a completely unique way have a look at these maps of Winchester which all
predate any of Ogilb's maps you'll notice that not one contains a road or
track way Obilny however really set the stage for modern map makin prior to this
Winchester had never been mapped in such detail it very much was a continuation
of the modern mapping Londyn they undertook soon after the
Great Fire of London Oh whose maps weren't like modern-day ones they were
more of a sheet so instead of an area it was actually a location to a location a
to be in separate sheets this was completely unique so this is a route and
what's more important it had scale this room and all these routes were done to
one inch to one mile this was completely revolutionary the first clue however
this something wasn't quite right with these maps was the very first sheet and
when I say not quite right I don't mean in their unique and groundbreaking
quality I mean their actual purpose the first sheet contains the route London to
Aberystwyth now at the time Aberystwyth was a town with less than a hundred
homes this was odd many other routes could also be seen in the same light
often leading to obscure places or roots in areas that were considered
potentially dangerous take a look at a curious Holly head route you have to
wait until the tide goes out to go around this mountain the book even read
so here your sacred majesty I present you an important the scale of
peace in war. That doesn't sound like an Atlas atlas is worth how we wouldn't know an
atlas these days they're not for that everyday traveler it seems not although
the everyday traveler could certainly use it yeah but not to everywhere else
where we do these days so where was the money in it well over we realized that
this could be tied in with Charles a second postal town projects in his it'd
be set up he set this up between 1660 in 1667 and other we realized that this
could be tied in with that linking the postal towns Charles the second had
realized what an important revenue this had become for the crown
so in Ogilbyoffering an image of London's relationship with the rest of
England it dramatically aided Charles a second and his control of the country in
more ways than one all postal towns would now be linked for
this new revolutionary map Ogilby realized it was going to be
quite difficult for him to raise the funds to do all this so he actually
embarked on what was kind of passes the first ever kind of crowdfunding
absolutely so he did get a little bit money from the crowd but it's certainly
not enough to map 26,000 miles so he wrote to a number of VIPs I guess we
would call them and he wrote a lot of read for ease of such of the gentry as a far
remote from the author's dwelling so I guess what that means is for the VIPs
all around the country this was going to be a massive benefit to them and
happened bringing their bit of land closer together
so yeah and what a genius way of securing funds and also King Charles had
been criticized quite a lot for knowing the whole world a lot better than you
his own country so yeah this would help him bring the country closer together
and therefore easier to control right I've waffled enough about this wonderful
piece of art basically let's see if we can map this in a weird and wonderful
time-lapse, here is a very scaled a map over England and Wales little bit
of Northern Ireland too and let's see if we can use Ogilvy's map and draw some of
his roots just to see exactly where they did go
okay so um well that really tells you obviously there was a heck of a lot the
came out of London for obvious reasons and obviously the other major postal towns
along the way will pop up a list you can have a look on Wikipedia and see the
Johno Ogilbys list and have a look at some of these map yourself absolutely
fascinating so from the two of us we hope you've enjoyed our little map fun with
Maps and the story of the first at the very first road atlas, go look
online it's actually fascinating and we'll see you next week
it's the scale.... hahahaha