Great Britain's coasting pilot. In two parts. Being a new and exact survey of the sea-coast of England and Scotland from the river of Thames to the westward and northward with the islands of Scilly and from thence to Carlyle. Likewise the islands of Orkney and Shetland

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A Landmark in the Charting of Great Britain. Folio, 18th century mottled half calf over blue-green marbled paper boards, decorative gilt spine, red morocco lettering piece, pp. [iv] 26. Fine allegorical copperplate title (incorporating a small map of the British Isles), letter press title printed in red & black, 47 copperplate charts & profiles (5 folding, 3 single page, the remainder double page) and one chart in the text (at p18). A couple of the folding maps just torn at fold, some browning and offsetting, text spotted in places, but still a handsome copy. First published in 1693 and reissued many times throughout the eighteenth century, this formidable and costly project, [was] the first systematic survey of British coastal waters (Moreland & Bannister, Antique Maps, 3rd ed p163). (511*322 mm). (Phillips 5199. Moreland & Bannister). In 1667 the Dutch sailed up the Thames and destroyed a great part of the British Navy in the Medway and bombarded Chatham.... [an] the Government was shaken... by the realisation that the Dutch new more about the coastline of England than the English themselves, and their confidence was not increased when it was found that John Seller, in producing the first volume of his marine atlas, the English Pilot, in 1671, was still using Dutch plates and often very old ones at that. As now, government was tardy in action and it was not until 1681 that Samuel Pepys, as Secretary of the Navy, instructed Captain Greenville Collins to carry out a survey of British coasts and harbours. In due course, after a seven year survey, Captain Collins issued in 1693 the Great Britain's Coasting Pilot, an outstanding work consisting of 48 charts, the first complete Pilot Book in English of all the coasts of Great Britain and the surrounding islands with special attention, of course, to the ports (Moreland & Bannister). In 1693, he finally published his results in a folio volume of two parts, Great Britain's Coasting Pilot, containing sailing directions, tide tables, coastal views and about forty-nine charts. The charts were not completely accurate, but with all their shortcomings they were an enormous advance on anything before them, and entitle Collins to rank not only with the earliest, but with the best of English hydrographers. The work covered England and Scotland, and though Collins proposed a further study to cover Ireland, the plan came to nothing. Collins recorded that he had spent £40 on instruments, and charged £80 for the 120 manuscript maps he delivered. With his claim for expenses set at £200 per annum, and his wages of £394 10s., he claimed a total of £1914 10s. for his work, which was eventually paid in arrears. The cost was more than three times the original estimate. His cousin, Freeman Collins, printed the Coasting Pilot, which Richard Mount sold. Mount's subsequent firm then went on to publish twenty-one further editions of the pilot throughout the nineteenth century.