Scotland

Herman Moll

1714

The NORTH PART of GREAT BRITAIN called SCOTLAND with Considerable Improvements and many Remarks not Extant on any Map. According to the Newest and Exact Oberservations. By Herman Moll, Geographer 1714

[Printed for H. Moll over against Devereux Court in the Strand, D. Midwinter bookseller in St. Pauls Churchyard and Tho. Bowles print and mapseller next to y[e] Chapterhouse in St. Pauls Churchyard]

101 x 60 cms. Two sheets joined vertically at centre. Hand coloured. Overall fine condition, with some of the often-found fold wear and damages. One or two repaired edge nicks and tears in side blank margins only, some light verso reinforcements on verso at sheet edges.  

An early state of Herman Moll's superb large-scale map of the Kingdom of Scotland, published shortly after the Act of Union and just prior to the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715. The map is embellished with splendid vignette engravings down either side of the map, derived from the views of the military engineer John Slezer published in his Theatrum Scotiae of 1693, the first pictorial survey of Scotland. These depict on the left : Aberdeen, Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle, Dunnottar Castle, The Bass Rock and Fortrose (called Channery by Slezer, being Chanonry, one of two settlements (the other Rosemarkie) formally united in 1592 under the name Fortrose). On the right hand side, an inset of the Shetland & Orkney Islands, below which appear panoramic views of Edinburgh, Glasgow, St.Andrews, Stirling and Montrose, again derived from the views in Slezer's Theatrum Scotiae. Moll's map makes an appeal for the development of Scotland as a centre for Fisheries and for the timber trade with a note below the title stating that : "Its manifest by this Map which is founded upon undouted Authority, how easy it would be to settle the most advantageous Fishery in the World here, and also with a small Charge to make Rivers navigable, for Carrying timber to the Sea side, for there grows excellent good Fir & c in these parts so that if things were rightly managed, there would be no occasion to go to Norway for Wood or to New-found-land for fish; seeing North Britain can Plentifully furnish us with both". The map is of further interest for the timing of its publication just prior to the succession of the new Hanoverian king, George I. In this regard perhaps most interesting is the dedication of the map by Moll to John Erskine, Earl of Mar [1675-1732], created Secretary of State for Scotland by the Tory government at Westminster in 1713. With the accession of the new Hanoverian King, George I, in August 1714, Mar had assured the new Hanoverian monarch of his loyalty but was deprived of his office and a year later, travelled in disguise from London to Scotland where he was soon taking his place as the Scottish leader of the Jacobite movement, supporters of the the so-called Old Pretender, James Francis Stuart, son of the previously exiled King James II. After the demise of the 1715 Rebellion, Mar fled with the Old Pretender to exile in France, whence he continued to maintain links with his native Scotland and supervise from afar the maintenance and development of his family estate near Alloa until his death in 1732. In all a fine and impressive production.