The Antiquities of England and Wales Vol I (page 1/8)

Francis Grose, Esq., FAS., The Antiquities of England and Wales, Being a Collection of Views of the Most remarkable Ruins and antient Buildings, Accurately drawn on the spot. To each view is added An Historical Accounf of its Situation, when and by whom built, with every interesting Circumstance relating thereto. Collected from the best authorities.
London, Printed by C. Clarke, for S. Hooper, No. 212 High Holborn, opposite Southampton Street, Bloomsbury Square, M.DCC.LXXXIII [1783]

My copy of Volume I is falling apart, but that at least means I don’t have to worry about damaging the binding when I scan the pictures. I took a photograph of this book open to the title page.

I wish I had more volumes of this series. I also obtained volume 3, but it came without the maps, unfortunately. The perils of eBay!

The maps in this series of books were originally engraved in about 1694 for John Seller’s Anglia Contracta. John Seller was a noted map maker and publisher of the second half of the 17th century, known especially for his sea charts. Years later Francis Grose got hold of the engraved plates for the maps and used them in this popular series of Antiquities, removing the John Seller cartouche. The colour in the maps would have been added by hand after printing.

There is a short biography of Francis Grose from 1814.

Captain Francis Grose is also known for compiling dictionaries. I have a copy of his Provincial Glossary. He also wrote a dictionary of slang; Project Gutenberg has made a text version of an 1811 version of this (I have a fac simile edition) and I have used this as a starting point, corrected many errors, and put it online as the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

There is also an entry in the Nuttall Encyclopædia for Captain Francis Grose.