Enlightenment Geography

Enlightenment Geography

Studies in Modern History General Editor: J. C. D. Clark, Joyce and Elizabeth Hall Distinguished Professor of British History, University of Kansas Titles include: Bernard Cottret (editor) BOLINGBROKE S POLITICAL WRITINGS The Conservative Enlightenment Philip Hicks NEOCLASSICAL HISTORY AND ENGLISH CULTURE From Clarendon to Hume William M. Kuhn DEMOCRATIC ROYALISM The Transformation of the British Monarchy, 1861 1914 Kim Lawes PATERNALISM AND POLITICS The Revival of Paternalism in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain Nancy D. LoPatin POLITICAL UNIONS, POPULAR POLITICS AND THE GREAT REFORM ACT OF 1832 James Muldoon EMPIRE AND ORDER The Concept of Empire, 800 1800 W. D. Rubinstein and Hilary Rubinstein PHILOSEMITISM Admiration and Support for Jews in the English-Speaking World, 1840 1939 Lynne Taylor BETWEEN RESISTANCE AND COLLABORATION Popular Protest in Northern France, 1940 45 Studies in Modern History Series Standing Order ISBN 0 333 79328 5 (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

Enlightenment Geography The Political Languages of British Geography, 1650 1850 Robert J. Mayhew Lecturer in Human Geography Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences University of Wales Aberystwyth

First published in Great Britain 2000 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-41906-7 ISBN 978-0-230-59549-1 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230595491 First published in the United States of America 2000 by ST. MARTIN S PRESS, LLC, Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-23475-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mayhew, Robert J. (Robert John), 1971 Enlightenment geography : the political languages of British geography, 1650 1850 / Robert J. Mayhew. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ). ISBN 978-0-312-23475-1 (cloth) 1. Great Britain Historical geography. 2. Great Britain Politics and government. 3. Geography Great Britain History. 4. Great Britain Intellectual life. 5. Political geography History. 6. Enlightenment Great Britain. I. Title. DA600.M295 2000 911'.41 dc21 00 027247 Robert J. Mayhew 2000 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-79186-8 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements vii viii 1 Effacing and Recovering the History of Geography 1 2 The Sphere of Geography and the Realm of Politics in Britain, c.1650 1850 23 3 Geography is twinned with divinity : the Laudian Geography of Peter Heylyn, 1621 57 49 4 John Ogilby and the Iconographic Roads to a Restored Royalist Geography, c.1660 75 66 5 The Political and Geographical Appropriations of Edmund Bohun, 1684 1710 86 6 Edmund Gibson s Editions of Britannia: Loyalist Chorography and the Particularist Politics of Precedent, 1695 1722 100 7 Varieties of Orthodox Geography, 1700 50: Three Vignettes: Echard, Wells and Salmon 122 8 The Denominational Politics of Travel-Writing: the Case of Tory Anglicans in the 1770s 141 9 The Scottish Enlightenment and British Geography (I): Guthrie and Pinkerton, c.1770 1802 168 10 On the Cusp of Modern Geography: Fieldwork and Textuality in the Career of James Rennell, 1764 1830 193 11 The Scottish Enlightenment and British Geography (II): James Bell and J.R. McCulloch, 1830 50 207 12 Coda: Halford Mackinder and the Empire of New Political Geography, c.1887 1919 229 13 Enlightenments and Geography: Continuity and Change in the Politics of Early-Modern British Geography, c.1550 c.1850 246 v

vi Contents Notes 258 Bibliography 295 Index 317

List of Illustrations 4.1 The Second Arch in John Ogilby s Coronation Procession for Charles II, from Ogilby s Entertainment (1662) 72 4.2 Wenceslaus Hollar s Frontispiece to John Ogilby s Britannia (1675) 76 4.3 London to Aberystwyth route map, part 1, from John Ogilby s Britannia (1675) 80 4.4 Emblem at the Head of the text to John Ogilby s Britannia (1675) 81 4.5 London to Aberystwyth route map, part 1, from Emanuel Bowen s Britannia Depicta (1720) 84 12.1 Maps of Britain and Ireland from Halford Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas (1902) 239 12.2 Map of Britain and Ireland from Halford Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas (1902) 240 All illustrations are reproduced by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library. vii

Acknowledgements My study begins with Peter Heylyn, a lecturer in geography at Hertford College, Oxford from the 1610s. My thanks are owed to the same institution, which fostered my humanist approach to geography and eventually appointed me to a college lectureship some 375 years after Heylyn. As Heylyn sought patronage from William Laud at St John s, so I am also delighted to acknowledge my debt to that college, which supported my doctoral research through its generous award of a North Senior Scholarship. The award of a British Academy post-doctoral fellowship has allowed this project to reach fruition in Cambridge, where Corpus Christi College has given me a third congenial home, of which I can say with Richard Gough: while I erect this monument to the votaries of antiquity, can I forget to acknowledge that my passion for these pursuits was fostered within those venerable walls? Finally, as John Ogilby s first route-map passes through Oxford on its way to Aberystwyth, so I have traversed that trajectory and would like to express my thanks to the geographers at Aberystwyth for appointing me to a lectureship. Philip Howell and Charles Withers read and commented on an earlier and shorter version of this book with characteristic rigour and generosity. David Livingstone made important points which have much improved the continuity and focus of the final draft; this is but one of many scholarly debts I owe him. Paul Langford and Howard Erskine-Hill have encouraged me to develop my approach to Samuel Johnson. Boyd Hilton made useful comments on Chapter 11. Quentin Skinner s encouraging comments on my project proved a fillip. I owe a great debt to Jack Langton, who has always exemplified in his work and his criticism the interweaving of geography and humanism which I aspire to achieve. My thanks must also go to Jonathan Clark, whose writings have greatly influenced my own, and who has consistently supported my attempts to recover geography s humanist history. My final thanks must go to Yvonne: if Enlightenment and humanism are the key terms in this study, they take on a living meaning in and through her. viii