A Topographical Survey of the County of Berks

John Rocque’s scarce eighteen-sheet Topographical Survey of the County of Berks (1761) is the most detailed pre-Ordnance Survey map of Berkshire and the only large-scale survey of the county produced before 1800. Executed at the exceptional scale of two inches to the mile—one of only thirteen English county maps ever attempted at this magnitude—it records towns, villages, estates, woodland, commons, watercourses, mills, farms, roads, bridleways, and parish boundaries with remarkable precision. The survey was undertaken by Josiah Ballard and engraved by Richard Benning and L. F. Deharme. Originally conceived as a three-county survey of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire, only the Berkshire section reached publication, though Rocque extended several sheets into neighbouring counties,  and the northern part of the historic county surveyed by Rocque now lies within Oxfordshire. We can find no prior sales history for these sheets sold individually except a single example. Celebrated for its decorative refinement and outstanding survey accuracy, Rocque’s work represents the pinnacle of mid-eighteenth-century English topographical engraving.